Evaluation Remarks about Slovenian Parliamentary Democracy at Its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary

Abstract

In order to evaluate the existing practices of the Slovenian parliamentary democracy, the author conducted a chronological overview of the shifts in prevailing democratic patterns, starting with the first parliamentary elections after the country gained independence onwards. Parliamentary and governmental political party behaviour was central to the analysis and, thus, was analysed using both statistical data and secondary sources, which primarily consisted of academic and research papers and media records. The analysis revealed that Slovenian parliamentary democracy in the initial (first) decade was according to the electoral data predictable and by programme orientation oriented towards democratic development. However, over the past three election cycles (second decade), the situation began to change quickly, indicating a predominance of internal party interests and conflicts that affect the country’s entire democratic arena. One of the main findings of the article suggests that political parties in Slovenia remain a fundamentally important pillar of parliamentary democracy, but their roles and activities within the parliamentary, governmental and other arenas increasingly warn of their central mission and democratic system functions. It can be detected that the potentials for electoral uncertainties increase with the intensities of internal and inter-parties’ conflicts which all give distinctly negative connotation to the country’s parliamentary democracy. To reverse the curve of parliamentary democracy in a country upwards again a new period of democratic transformation should be activated, built on the principles of a new model of democratic and party governance, as well as also global sustainability policies. A clear distance from narrow internal political parties’ interests, conflicts and in this regard negative competition needs to be considered as well.