791 • let. 61, 3/2024 791 • let. 61, 3/2024
Danica FINK-HAFNER
PARTY SYSTEM CHANGES AND 
CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRACY: 
SLOVENIA IN A COMPARATIVE 
PERSPECTIVE 
Springer Nature, Cham 2024, 
236 pp., EUR 42,79 
(ISBN 978-3-031-54948-9)
Slovenia is considered to be a con-
solidated democracy, although it ex-
perienced a few elements of democratic 
backsliding between 2020 and 2022. 
However, many different qualitat-
ive changes in the last decades have 
importantly transformed the way 
democracy functions in Slovenia. A 
key change refers to the specific ways 
political parties and the party system 
have transformed. Understanding the 
changes in party systems and their 
connection to democracy can be stud-
ied from quite a narrow, institutionalist 
perspective. Danica Fink-Hafner in-
stead chooses a different, much broader 
and holistic approach, focusing on the 
interplay of politics, the economy, soci-
ety, international factors while analys-
ing this topic in her book Party System 
Changes and Challenges to Democracy: 
Slovenia in a Comparative Perspective. 
Fink-Hafner presents a complex 
analysis of changes occurring in the 
Slovenian party system. She is primar-
ily interested in the influence of party 
system changes on the quality of demo-
cracy in Slovenia and how the specific 
political, social, economic and interna-
tional contexts and constraints influ-
enced the transformation of the party 
system and democracy in the country. 
The book is divided into eight chapters, 
with the first four more focused on 
theoretical and comparative questions 
of democracy, political parties and 
challenges to democracy, while the re-
maining chapters deal with case study 
selection and the empirical case of Slo-
venia, concentrating on party changes 
and party system changes over the last 
three decades. 
After the first introductory chapter 
in which Fink-Hafner sketches out 
the central goals and arguments of 
her book, Chapter 2 contextualises 
the book’s main topic and provides an 
overview of various political theories 
on the democracy–political parties re-
lationship. The author considers the dif-
ferent legacies of British and American 
political and theoretical liberalisms. 
Fink-Hafner also provides an opera-
tional definition of liberal democracy 
in everyday practice and reflects on the 
important distinctions between lib-
eral and illiberal democracy; presents 
different ideas that have been around 
since the end of the Second World War 
aimed at correcting the weaknesses 
of liberal democracy: consociational 
democracy, neo-pluralist theories etc. 
She also deals with the concepts of 
cosmopolitan democracy and transna-
tional democracy, with special regard 
to the European Union, the democratic 
deficit of the EU’s institutional design, 
and the organisation of European polit-
ical parties. 
The third chapter presents analysis 
of the relationship between democracy 
and political parties, focusing on the 
different practices of democracy and 
various political parties. Apart from 
the usual positive outlook on the role 
of political parties in a democracy, the 
author makes critical observations con-

792 TEORIJA IN PRAKSA 792 TEORIJA IN PRAKSA
cerning the role political parties play 
in liberal democratic polities. A spe-
cial section refers to the role of political 
parties and their important function 
in the transition to and consolidation 
of democracy, while also reflecting on 
the role of political parties and other 
elements that can lead to democratic 
backsliding without necessarily caus-
ing a breakdown of democracy. 
In Chapter 4, the author discusses 
the various dimensions and character-
istics of party systems and the chal-
lenges to democracy following the 
increasing political and party polarisa-
tion. Fink-Hafner looks in particular at 
the institutionalisation of both parties 
and the party system, along with stabil-
isation of the latter. At the same time, 
she also discusses the personalisation 
of politics and parties, even the pro-
cesses of presidentialisation that lead 
to the opposite outcomes from party 
institutionalisation. The topic of the 
representativeness of parties and their 
social embeddedness, coupled with the 
problems of the growing disembedded-
ness of parties is considered in a separ-
ate section, while also analysing polit-
ical polarisation, anti-systemic parties 
and populism. 
Chapter 5 is devoted to giving con-
text for the case study of Slovenia. The 
author focuses on the party system and 
the Slovenian context. Fink-Hafner 
provides several justifications for the 
case study (a stable and successful 
democracy compared to most other 
post-socialist countries; a stable insti-
tutional framework of a parliamentary 
democracy; no neoliberal shock ther-
apy in the early days of the transition 
period and economic gradualism; a 
vibrant party system that did not ser-
iously challenge the quality of demo-
cracy; low party system institutional-
isation combined with a high quality 
of democracy; the specific role of the 
old party (League of Communists of 
Slovenia) and the youth of the party 
since they played a key role in adapting 
to liberal democratic standards; strong 
NGOs and trade unions). She also 
presents the need to understand the 
specific domestic and worldwide so-
cial, economic and structural changes 
that have influenced the party system 
changes and quality of democracy in 
Slovenia: exogenous shocks, autocratic 
tendencies across the globe, globalisa-
tion, economic factors (unemployment, 
GDP per capita, privatisations, loans), 
social and economic inequalities, role 
of the EU, and role of non-party act-
ors. She also describes the indicators 
of the party system (institutionalisa-
tion – personalisation, stability, social 
embeddedness, number of coalition 
parties, stability of governments, early 
elections, fragmentation, polarisation 
etc.) as the most important indicators 
of the party system’s transformation 
taking place in the changing domestic 
and international context. 
Chapter 6 provides analysis of the 
“flow of democracy” (118) in Slovenia 
within the altered internal and ex-
ternal context. Fink-Hafner initially 
focuses on the political context, ana-
lysing different political processes 
(gaining of independence, adaptation 
of the old political and economic elites 
to the new political system, transition 
to and consolidation of democracy, the 
role of different political parties, join-
ing the EU and NATO, the rise of the 

793 • let. 61, 3/2024 793 • let. 61, 3/2024
illiberal SDS party and its political and 
constitutional proposals with focus 
given to the illiberal period between 
2020 and 2022 under a government 
led by Janez Janša) along with different 
indexes showing the quality of demo-
cracy in Slovenia. In this section, the 
author also looks at other, non-polit-
ical factors that have been shaping 
the nature and changes of democracy 
in Slovenia: privatisation processes 
of state-owned enterprises, the rise of 
foreign debt, GDP per capita, the HDI 
index, unemployment rate, Gini coef-
ficient of income and wealth inequal-
ity, poverty rate, the importance of the 
neocorporatist Social and Economic 
Council, the importance of trade uni-
ons and the Roman Catholic Church, 
and the importance of the interna-
tional context (collapse of socialism in 
the late 1980s; breakup of Yugoslavia, 
role of the EU, the 2008 crisis, the 
COVID-19 pandemic). 
Chapter 7 discusses certain changes 
in the party system in Slovenia. The 
author distinguishes four periods: the 
establishing of parties and the trans-
itional party system (1989–1991); 2) 
consolidation of the party system 
(1992–2000 elections); 3) destabilisation 
of the party system (2004–2008 elec-
tions; and 4) continuous renewal of the 
party system (2011–2022 elections). The 
first party system was quite fragmen-
ted with nine small parties, where the 
formation of DEMOS and the struggle 
for power with the reformed commun-
ists proved crucial. In 1991, a new con-
stitution was adopted that has played 
a notable role since the proportional 
system was put in place, leading to fur-
ther fragmentation of the party system. 
Parties have had some serious conflicts, 
especially over privatisation and the 
role of the Church, while broader gov-
ernment coalitions consisting of liberal 
and conservative parties have stabilised 
the party system. The LDS party played 
a vital role during this period. The third 
period was one of destabilisation of the 
party system when important changes 
started to appear. LDS lost most of its 
support, parties began to turn to neo-
liberal policies while the conservative 
government attempted a sharp neo-
liberal turn. The fourth period (2011–
2022) was marked by considerable 
volatility and constant changes with 
new parties emerging and declining 
rapidly, with personalisation and pres-
identialisation growing in this time 
while programmatic elements were be-
coming increasingly obsolete.
Chapter 8 is the concluding chapter 
of the book in which the author sum-
marises the main findings of her re-
search. A critical finding concerns 
the fact that political parties and the 
entire party system in Slovenia “have 
evolved away from their primary role 
of representation. Rather than offering 
ideological and political ideas for Slo-
venia’s development, they either lost 
their parliamentary positions or joined 
in with the growing polarization, pop-
ulism and personalization of politics. 
The empty spaces have been filled by 
new political parties, which have lacked 
programmatic clarity” (215–216). Cru-
cially, as the author notes, a narrow fo-
cus on party institutionalisation, polar-
isation and other institutional segments 
cannot provide sufficient explanations 
“on their own why transitions to demo-
cracy are successful, why democracy 

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is consolidated, or why consolidated 
democracy may become endangered” 
(219). 
The book presents a holistic and de-
tailed analysis of the development of 
political parties, the party system and 
democracy in Slovenia following the 
country’s independence, making it an 
indispensable source for scholars and 
the broader public alike.
The greatest merit of the book is the 
argument that democracy is always a 
process that is challenged and unfin-
ished, with multiple different streams 
and outcomes. The author is thus in-
terested in the “fluidity of democracy”, 
which enables her to grasp the broader 
perspectives and contexts, making the 
book very different from the typical 
analysis of party-system changes and 
provides the author with the frame-
work needed for in-depth and detailed 
explanations of the democracy–party 
system relationship on one hand, and 
specific political, economic, social 
domestic and international contexts. 
Here, a question that emerges for future 
research is whether it is possible to ap-
proach the subject from the standpoint 
of a more radical theory of democracy.
Marko HOČEVAR