Slovenia

Slovenia's achievements over the past several years have been remarkable. Thirteen years after independence from the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, the country is among the most advanced of all the transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe and a leading candidate for accession to the European Union in May 2004. Remarkably, however, very little has been published documenting this historic transition. In the only book of its kind, the contributors - many of them the architects of Slovenia's current transformation - analyze the country's three-fold transition from a command to a market economy, from a regionally based to a national economy, and from a part of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia to a member of the European Union (EU). With chapters from Slovenia's president, a former vice prime minister, the current and previous ministers of finance, the minister of European Affairs, the current and former governors of the Bank of Slovenia, as well as from leading development scholars in Slovenia and abroad, this unique collection synthesizes Slovenia's recent socioeconomic and political history and assesses the challenges ahead. Contributors discuss the Slovenian style of socioeconomic transformation, analyze Slovenia's quest for EU membership, and place Slovenia's transition within the context of the broader transition process taking place in Central and Eastern Europe. Of interest to development practitioners and to students and scholars of the region, Slovenia: From Yugoslavia to the European Union is a comprehensive and illuminating study of one country's path to political and economic independence.