Slovenia, until recently a “success story” of the transition from communism to democracy and the rule of law, is experiencing its biggest constitutional and political crisis since its independence in 1991. The Slovenian constitutional model is currently facing a simultaneous economic and political crisis. The article argues that there are two principle reasons for this apparent decline of the Slovenian model. First, because of its relatively privileged position vis-a-vis other East Central European countries, Slovenia has been a reluctant reformer, doing very little to actually change its institutional setup from the communist past. Second, when Slovenia implemented reforms, it did it in a very particular way: as an uncritical model-taker of policy models from the West. This mimicry was done in a fairly top down, bureaucratic way, creating institutions without deep enough roots in society, and without necessary trial and error style usually needed for successful evaluation of proposed reforms.

The article focuses on rise of nationalism and xenophobia in Slovenia. It starts by considering the issue of unrecognized minorities in Slovenia (former Yugoslavia nations) that have no minority rights, despite being large groups, as many international organizations for the protection of minorities have pointed out. A particular issue in this relation for Slovenia is the ‘Erased’ – the individuals who did not acquire Slovenian citizenship when Slovenia seceded from federal Yugoslavia – and despite the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision, the Slovenian state has still not recognized their rights, which were violated in the post-independence period. The article also examines two other minorities in Slovenia, the Jews and the Roma. The article finds Slovenia to be a closed, non-globalised society which, in spite of its constitutional declaration to protect the rights of minorities and other national communities, is seeking to retain a politically and culturally homogeneous nation state.