The Question of the Ideological, Political, Social and National Co–habitation in the Liberal Political Thought and Practice between 1891–1941

Abstract

The question of the ideological, political, social and national co–habitation in the liberal political thought and practice since the beginning of its independent political organisation in 1891 until World War II in Slovenia indicates that this complex problem has been the hardest issue to address in the life of the Slovenian society and nation in the recent past. It stemmed from the Slovenian mutual ideological and political denial and exclusion, manifesting itself in various forms and different historical situations, frequently in severe hatred between the basic historical political camps in Slovenia. The liberals were no exception and also no rule as far as this was concerned, even though the ideological struggle in Slovenia was initiated by the Catholic side. The liberals' opposition to the political Catholicism, most severe in the (former) Carniola, was less and less often based on modernity and its underlying values, and increasingly frequently on the cultural struggle and anti–Catholic ideologies. Thus with its example liberalism – which also held true of its attitude to the socialist and communist movement – only confirmed the restrictive and aggravating ideological, political, largely also corporatist–self–sufficient or hierarchic–total social attitude of Slovenians at that time. This attitude did not contain enough room for a balanced perception of the others. This surely resulted in heavy historical baggage, which Slovenians had gathered in the time up to the World War II and which had been added to abundantly by the mounting mutual hatred among them during World War II.