ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the territorial administrative structure of the country, the spatial impact of reform in the country and the emerging regional policy response. The basic administrative unit below central government in Slovenia is the municipality. The law on local self-government in 1994 increased the number of municipalities from 62 to 147. In the economic field, the emphasis was initially placed on achieving macro-economic stability as well as on measures to halt the fall in production and employment. Slovenia has achieved, to a great extent, the stabilisation of the economy, the initial phase of recovery, and the creation of a new institutional and legal framework necessary for the market economy - its effective co-ordination and co-operation remain major challenges. The limited, under-resourced nature of current regional policy in Slovenia, focused on small, peripheral and de-populating areas, is unable to combat the emerging regional disparities and is insufficient to stimulate endogenous regional development.
