ABSTRACT
Developments within Slovenia during the late 1980s served to fuel the military elite's abhorrence of growing political pluralism. Not only did the proliferation of noncommunist groups in Slovenia undermine the prevailing elite strategy aimed at containing multiparty pluralism, but various Slovenian intellectuals had begun to directly attack the military's role in Yugoslav domestic and foreign policy. The Slovenian and Croatian elections of spring 1990 radically altered the character of political life in Yugoslavia. For Slovenian voters, the election contest essentially boiled down to a choice between reform socialism or postsocialism. At the end of 1990, over 235 parties were in existence, and the upward trend continued during the first six months of 1991, at which time 290 parties had been registered. The new competitive environment that followed years of one-party monopoly fostered a trend aptly described as "wild" or "neurotic" pluralism, which included the formation of several very small organizations that focused on some narrow special interest or issue.
