Unlike many post-socialist countries, Slovenia adopted the so-called „gradualist“ model of transition from socialism to capitalism. In 1992 and 1993, massive workers’ strikes were organized to oppose the privatization of production, the process that proved to be destructive in general and fatal for heavy industry in particular. Due to these strikes, the Slovenian political and economic elites reconsidered their
sympathies with the so-called „shock doctrine“ of the early nineties, adopting instead the „gradualist“ transition model. This model was based on four premises: a) retaining state control over financial and key industrial sectors as well as infrastructure; b) slow and merely partial privatization of public institutions; c)
maintaining social peace through high employment and national-level collective bargaining agreements; and d) export-oriented monetary policies (with relatively high rates of inflation). Those policies enabled Slovenia to maintain at least a part of its industrial basis that was inherited from socialism and was able to support a relatively wide set of welfare-state mechanisms and social protection. More