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Abstract
Slovenia has been widely portrayed as a ‘success story’ of the transition to modern liberal democracy. This paper attempts to revise that somewhat distorted image by explaining how different political visions, and their clashes and coalitions over two decades of independent statehood, influenced the Slovenian citizenship regime, which is rife with undemocratic practices. Drawing on the ‘nationalizing state’ approach, the paper illuminates two dominant political agendas: the nationalizing state agenda and the Europeanizing state agenda. However, both agendas are frequently intertwined and provide legitimacy to political actors across the ideological spectrum depending on the circumstances. These circumstances are external or internal to the political system and determine the relevance of either of the two agendas. As such, they also play an important role in shaping the outcome of the political bargaining that has left its mark on the Slovenian citizenship regime. The periods of consensus between political elites regarding the overarching goals of national independence and accession to the European Union were accompanied by external pressures to introduce liberal democratic principles. Consequently, these facilitated the civic agenda. On the other hand, the absence of international pressures, in combination with internal factors, allowed serious malpractice in the field. Nevertheless, citizenship has proved to be an extremely important aspect of both agendas.
Acknowledgements
The financial support of the European Research Council (CITSEE, ERC 230239) in the preparation of this special issue is gratefully acknowledged.
Notes
1. During accession negotiations, one of the top-ranking EU officials once referred to Slovenia as a ‘star pupil’. Afterwards, this label was frequently used to describe the exemplary manner of the Slovenian accession process to the EU (see Fink Hafner and Lajh Citation2008, Klemenčič Citation2008).
2. After being admitted to the UN in 1992, Slovenia was admitted to the World Trade Organization in 1995 and elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the period 1998–1999. It also became the first transition country to graduate from borrower status to donor partner status at the World Bank in 2004.
3. For an elaboration of the citizenship regime framework, see the introductory paper in this issue by Shaw and Štiks.
4. There are and were alternative political agendas; these were particularly influential during the 1980s and at the beginning of the 1990s. These were primarily promoted by new social movements (e.g. the peace movement, feminism, the ecological movement), which revived civil society and became agents of true political innovation (see Fink Hafner Citation1992). New social movements lost their visibility at the end of the 1980s, since their efforts blended into a wider movement for national sovereignty, human rights and political pluralism. Due to the political modernization that was achieved, new social movements were either (a) channelled into existing or supplementary institutions in the new political structure; or (b) institutionalized in the form of (1) umbrella organizations for successful coordination; (2) formation of civil society organizations; or (3) political institutionalization (Fink Hafner Citation1992). As a result, civil society regressed and absorbed previously suppressed structures with traditional and pre-modern elements, which Kuzmanić (Citation2002) describes as a usurpation of civil society.
5. It has to be said that the right–left divide in the political arena does not necessarily denote support for conservative/liberal values; rather, it mainly functions as a way of demarcating the main political actors. Hence, some authors describe the anti-right-wing pole as neo-national (see Kuzmanić Citation2001).
6. The civic vision of the state was primarily anticipated by the new social movements, which gained support within the socialist youth (later the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia) and reformed communists (see Zorn Citation2009). However, promotion of civic values was frequently compromised due to the political pragmatism of the above-mentioned left-wing parties (see Deželan Citation2011; Kuzmanić Citation2001).
7. Primarily circles around the journals Nova revija and Revija 2000 on the one hand, and Slavoj Žižek and Matevž Krivic, as well as Hobbesian-, Burkean-, Hayekean- and Millean-inspired Tomaž Mastnak, Slavko Gaber and others on the other.
8. The debate on self-determination centred on disagreements regarding who had the right to it – the republics or the nations. Though heavily debated, Slovenia was the least problematic due to a high level of ethnic homogeneity.
9. For similarities with the Macedonian case, see Spaskovska in this issue.
10. As Roter (Citation2003, p. 220) points out, the language performed an important function on a smaller scale (the identification of the titular nation that owns the state) in addition to its well-acknowledged broader function of nation-building and state-formation.
11. The most influential was the outline of the conceptual platform for the constitution of a Slovenian sovereign nation within a sovereign state in the 57th number of cultural–literary journal Nova Revija in 1987. One of the contributions to the platform, written by the future first and long-standing foreign minister of Slovenia, Dimitrij Rupel, even explicitly related the question of language to the question of statehood and proliferation of the Slovenian nation (see Rupel Citation1987), thus clearly indicating the perception of importance of the language for the eventually independent state.
12. A Slovenian public opinion survey from 1991, completed in the context of violent conflicts occurring first in Slovenia and then in Croatia, clearly indicates hostility oriented towards residents originating from the former republics, primarily towards Serbs and Montenegrins (Klinar Citation1992, p. 20).
13. European integration became their main goal when drafting a platform to redefine Slovenia's position in the former federation, which is evident by the title of the PDR's manifesto for the first democratic elections in April 1990: ‘Europe now!’.
14. For similarities with Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia, see Koska, Vasiljević and Spaskovska in this issue.
15. We use the concept of the citizenship constellation by Bauboeck (Citation2010) to indicate the intertwinement of the new citizenship regimes with each other. We understand constellations as structures with individuals simultaneously linked to several entities, either in parallel or vertically.
16. The agreement on the Succession of the Former SFRY took place a decade later. It was signed in Vienna on 29 June 2001 and came into force on 2 June 2004, on ratification by all successor countries (UN Citation2010).
17. According to the Ministry of the Interior (personal communication, 1 March 2011), 66.9% of applicants successfully pass the language proficiency test. Despite the absence of any detailed statistics, the argument put forward by the nationalists lacks validity since the majority of applicants come from the territory of former Yugoslavia.
18. For similarities with Croatia, see Koska in this issue.
19. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the latest official number of the ‘erased’ is 25,671 (Delo Citation2009).
20. According to Todorović (Citation2006), only around 2.5% of the ‘erased’ were in fact former army personnel.
21. According to art. 10 of the Citizenship Act (OGRS 2007), a person applying for Slovenian citizenship on the basis of naturalization is required to provide proof of renunciation of his or her previous citizenship.
22. The external voting provisions were introduced in the National Assembly Elections Act of July 1992.The act was prepared by the centre-right DEMOS government and adopted by a broad coalition after the former dissolved in April 1992.
23. For similarities in electoral arithmetic with more than symbolic consequences, see Koska and Džankić in this issue.
24. The Temporary Asylum Act was adopted as late as in 1997, and was amended in 2002 to provide ‘temporary asylum seekers’ the ability to acquire permanent residence, employment and entry into the social and health security system.
25. It has to be noted that Slovenia acted in congruence with the actions of several European states that introduced the status of temporary protection, which was not opposed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at the time (see Luca Citation1994).
26. The European Commission (EC) demanded a number of actions to put the membership application forward in Agenda 2000 (1997). It explicitly pushed for the ratification of the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities or the signing of the European Social Charter, a reduction of slow judicial proceedings, the abolition of certain discriminatory practices in the labour market, and the need to regulate the status of refugees. It also pressed for actions to resolve problems about the ‘erased’ case population.
27. The case of the ‘erased’ is the best example of the ingenuity of political players across the ideological spectrum. Among the actions taken to delay/block resolving the issue were: several legislative acts entering the legislative procedure regulating the same problem, numerous pushes for referendum on issues concerning human rights, missing a deadline to submit an issue to the Constitutional Court, etc. (see Deželan Citation2011, pp. 16–20).
28. E.g. in terms of inclusion such as the right to vote (but not to run for the office) to third country nationals in local elections; the introduction of an ‘irregular zipper’ system and gender quotas for the lists of candidates for European parliament elections.
29. The current centre-left government managed to amend the Act Regulating the Legal Status of Citizens of the Former SFRY Living in the Republic of Slovenia in March 2010, thus implementing Constitutional Court decision U-I-246/02-28 and coping with certain obstacles identified in practice. Despite the Ministry of the Interior issuing approximately 6500–7000 supplementary decisions regulating the status of the erased on the basis of Constitutional Court decision U-I-246/02-28 (STA Citation2011), the non-governmental organizations called attention to the impracticality of the law, serious administrative obstacles in its implementation and absence of proactive provisions concerning welfare, employment and integration into society (Amnesty International Citation2011). The main open question remained financial reimbursement, which appeared to be potentially too damaging for the government to decide on, since even the European Court of Human Rights indicated that it was not ready to decide on this question (European Court of Human Rights Citation2010).
30. Categorized under the constitutionally undefined category of non-autochthonous, these minorities, also called ‘modern minorities’, which constitute together the largest minority in Slovenia, have no official status, are granted only marginal resources (Petković Citation2008) and face insurmountable obstacles to thrive (e.g. inability to build a sacral building).
31. For a similar discrimination of Roma, see Spaskovska and Džankić (in terms of the ‘European route’) in this issue.
32. A proposed revision of these country-specific regimes entails provisions for a ‘selective migration policy’, which would include elements of language proficiency and familiarity with Slovenian culture. In addition, the proposed regulation of work-permits for workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which constitute a bulk of immigrant labour force, denies them the opportunity to acquire permanent residence and consequently citizenship (Lukič Citation2010).
33. Under the continuous pressure of the Council of Europe, Slovenian Human Rights Ombudsman and the President of the Republic, political parties across the ideological spectrum managed to pass the Declaration on the situation of the national communities from the nations of the former Yugoslavia, which recognizes the willingness of Slovenian state to regulate the collective rights of those communities in the future (RTVSLO Citation2010).