Citizenship in Slovenia: the Regime of a Nationalising or a Europeanising State?

This paper attempts a comprehensive account of the Slovenian citizenship regime which has been only partially mapped by national and regional scholarship. The paper draws on a ‘nationalising state’ approach to demonstrate the nature of membership in a polity that emerged on the ruins of the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). By considering the influence of the old regime on the incipient conception of citizenship and the nation-building process, the paper depicts the core dynamic in the field for the last two decades. With explorations of the initial determination of citizenry, the regulation of minorities, dual citizens and refugees, popular attitudes, the political elite’s attitudes towards non-ethnic Slovenes, and the impact of Europe, the paper provides evidence for the primacy of an ethno-cultural conception of membership, which is constrained by the embeddedness of the Slovenian citizenship regime within international and supranational frameworks.