Political modernization in Slovenia in the 1980s and the early 1990s

Slovenia's history and geographical position have made its emergence from ‘real socialism’ idiosyncratic. The global political change that marked the end of Marxist‐Leninist rule was ushered in by a number of gradual changes concerning both modifications to Slovenia's political culture and the development of social factors. The new social movements played a key transformative role in the process of regime change, but it could not have been decisive without an evolution within the existing structure of power itself. The holding of free elections in the spring of 1990 confirmed the move to pluralism; but since the institutional framework remained substantialy unchanged, there is a risk, during the transition period, that a weak opposition will be overpowered by the strong executive emerging from the process of change.