ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Slovenia. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Slovenia. Slovenia is a parliamentary democracy with independent legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. Voters can change their government under a system of universal, equal, and direct suffrage. Citizens of Slovenia enjoy many other personal rights and freedoms. These include the freedom to travel, move, and choose a place of residence; the rights to privacy and the inviolability of the home; the right to health care and social security; and the freedom to work. Slovenia has an independent judiciary that consists of a supreme court, an administrative court, regional and district courts, and an appeals court.
