SGI 2024 | Slovenia | Key Challenges

Key Challenges

Recent Governments Experts

SGI experts on Slovenia

Alenka Krašovec

Alenka Krašovec is a professor at the University of Ljubljana, holding the chair of public policy analysis and public administration.

Her research focuses on the politics of Slovenia and the former Yugoslav republics, Europeanization, democracy and party competition. Alenka Krašovec received her PhD from the University of Ljubljana in 2007.

Meta Novak

Meta Novak, associate professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, and coordinator of the Policy Analysis PhD programme. She has led one Jean Monnet project, and is presently the holder of a Jean Monnet module. Her main research interest lies in the role of interest groups in EU policymaking. She teaches courses on Policy Analysis and Interest groups

Tomaž Deželan

Tomaž Deželan is a professor of political science at the University of Ljubljana. He continued his research career at various research institutions abroad (e.g. U Edinburgh, U Tallinn) and holds the Jean Monnet Chair for Civic Education. He is a member of a group of European researchers in the field of youth within the Youth Partnership (Council of Europe and European Commission) and works as an expert in the field of youth, political participation, employability and improvement/quality assurance in education. He is the coordinator of the doctoral study program in American Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. In the aforementioned areas, he coordinated more than 30 research and application projects worth several million euros and cooperated with many international governmental and non-governmental organizations and initiatives (OSCE ODIHR, OSCE, European Youth Forum, Peace Nexus, International IDEA, Social Progress Imperative, Council of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament, EACEA, ICF, WYG Consulting and others) and governments (Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Montenegro). Prof. Deželan was one of the key experts of the Slovenian presidency of the EU in the field of youth and co-author of the adopted Council resolutions. He is the author or co-author of more than 30 peer-reviewed scientific articles in journals, 25 chapters in edited collections, 10 scientific monographs and the editor of several edited collections and special issues of journals (ISI ranking) and the author of several political, positional and advocacy documents for various organizations (OSCE, International IDEA, EYF).

Petra Guasti (Coordinator)

Petra Guasti is an Associate Professor of Democratic Theory at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences (on leave). Between 2016 and 2021 served as a senior researcher, an Interim Professor and adjunct lecturer at the Goethe University Frankfurt. In April 2021 she completed her (cumulative) habilitation Democracy Disrupted at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Petra received her doctoral degree in political science from the University of Bremen. She also previously earned a doctoral degree in political sociology from the Charles University in Prague. In March 2019, she completed an eight-month Visiting Democracy Fellowship at Harvard University’s Ash Centre for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She serves as an expert for Bertelsmann Transformation Index, Sustainable Governance Indicators for over a decade, and V-Dem since 2018. In 2020 she has been appointed to the expert board of the Nation in Transit (Freedom House).

Under the Golob government, democratic regression was halted. However, the government faced numerous political challenges in 2023 and early 2024, both internally among coalition partners and externally. Golob and his team, lacking political experience, struggled to handle these issues, leading to a sharp decline in public support and trust, which affected their ability to govern effectively. The government must learn to work through personal differences and disagreements within the ministerial teams and improve its communication strategy.

Recently, the public has observed disagreements within all three coalition parties. Additionally, the resignation or replacement of ministers has resulted in some ministerial posts being filled by less experienced individuals. These circumstances and internal disputes could easily lead to further declines in support for the government’s activities and even its collapse. The upcoming elections to the European Parliament will be the next test of the government’s support.

Growing ideological polarization mostly prevents cooperation between the coalition and opposition parties, especially the main opposition party, the Slovenian Democratic Party. This polarization often hinders societal reforms. Urgent reforms in the healthcare and pension systems are needed. The absence of serious reforms in both systems will significantly impact the financial and economic sectors in the medium term due to the aging population and future social policy. The poor results achieved by Slovenian students in international studies on the education system call for a reform of the curricula and underscore the importance and urgency of developing a new national education program. This should be done after serious discussion and with the involvement of experts and relevant stakeholders to decide on the priorities and goals Slovenia wants to achieve with its educational reform.

As the period of loose rules to combat global crises (COVID-19 and energy) has ended, a more restrictive fiscal policy is needed to ensure compliance with budgetary commitments set in the wider environment, especially in the EU and the eurozone. The Golob government has withdrawn several promises and agreements made to employees in various public sectors, even before beginning serious negotiations on reforming the public sector wage system. These developments triggered several strikes in 2023, which the government has managed to control, at least temporarily.

Nevertheless, the doctors’ strike at the beginning of January 2024 for higher salaries could again trigger a series of demands and a wave of strikes for higher wages in other areas of the public sector. The same applies to judges and public prosecutors, who seek to have their salaries raised to align with those of the other two branches of the public service, as per the Constitutional Court’s decision. Among other influential actors, farmers have also raised clear demands, many of which contradict adopted policies and set targets, even at the EU level, which Slovenia has accepted.

Several important changes should be made in policy design, including greater use of expert advice to strengthen strategic planning, limit the politicization of the public service, and further improve the RIA system. Such changes can contribute to better policy implementation. The government must now focus on realizing the objectives set out in these strategies.

The government should ensure a stable and predictable tax system, as entrepreneurs and employers have requested. Only partial changes have been enacted in the past, but no comprehensive tax reforms have been prepared. This suggests that the government needs to effectively address various interest groups, including powerful ones, to prevent serious obstacles to Slovenia’s stability and further development.