Slovenia, formerly part of Yugoslavia, has a remarkably successful economy and is doing better than most other so-called transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
Question: Why? Answer (from a recent book “Osterweiterung” by Hofbauer, which provides a critical analysis of transition experiences): In Slovenia the formerly state-owned and cooperatively owned enterprises were first offered to the workers for purchase through some kind of coupon-system. As a result, a fair number of the enterprises are actually worker-owned. Only after the workers had a chance to buy, the foreign investors were allowed to buy. That prevented a wholesale sell-out of the country’s enterprises to foreign investors at sell-out prices, as happened in many other so-called transition countries.
Another factor mentioned by Hofbauer is that Slovenia had a fair amount of autonomy within the former Yugoslavia and had economic elites who had experience in dealing with the West. GK
