ABSTRACT
Slovenia's independent status might have been born out of a nationalist endeavour, but true independence is more than autonomy of a particular nation. It is the independence to choose the institutional and social values of a new modern state opened to the advanced world. Claims that workers had complete power over the distribution of surplus proved to be false as well - most enterprises no longer produced any surplus. The powerful historical nationalism was invigorated with a new element, a possible repetition of the genocide. The Slovene political tradition similarly to that of Slovakia has evolved without the tradition of independent statehood and with little tradition of independent political parties competing freely in an open system. The vulnerable Slovenes having lost large parts of their territory to Italy joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and found themselves in a centralised state where after 1929 the parliament was abolished and replaced by the authoritarian rule of the King.
