Slovenia and Latvia are two examples of countries which have gone through a successful democratic transition. They were both under authoritarian rule and command economy up until their declarations of independence in the early 90s. Today they have a functional market economy and political pluralism. I have examined transition theories highlighted by Jonas Linde and Joakim Ekman and from these theories sought the explanations to what lies behind the successful transitions of these two countries. The transition in Slovenia was affected by liberalization from within the ruling communist party which then controlled much of the transition process. A relatively large civil society and the fact that Slovenia was not involved in the Balkan War also contributed to the short process. In the case of Lativa was the strong public support for independence an important factor. The communist party could be defeated in the parliament in 1990, giving the Popular Front of Latvia legitimacy to declare the country independent. A constitution was created based on the one Latvia had created in 1922 when the country was an independent state for the first time. In neither Slovenia nor Latvia was violent revolutionary action a significant force for political change. Despite Latvia’s economical problems after the collapse of the Soviet economy and the ethnic segregation a political consensus remained that the democratic system had to withstand. The strive for full market economy and independence was an important factor in Slovenia as well as in Latvia. In Slovenia however, the political liberalization occurred before the economic. The state remained in partial control of the economy for a few years in order to secure a successful transition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hik-672 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Karlsson, Nils |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Kalmar, Humanvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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