ABSTRACT
The main criterion by which democratic progress in Slovakia can be measured is the level of tension between the two groups, a tension that cannot be explained by a cultural clash only. Both ethnic groups share the same customs and mostly the same religion, there is no significant economic division, nor any difference in their way of life, and generally the relations between people are good on the personal level. In theory, the second free elections in 1992 could have marked the beginning of the institutionalisation of a democratic regime in Czechoslovakia. From the elimination of the Slovak upper classes and from the absence of any political power derives not only a national ideology, but also a complete alienation of people from politics, always seen as something removed from them. A comparison of Slovakia with its Central European neighbours and with Slovenia indicates that the country faces democratisation under less favourable conditions then they do.
