This book is concerned with the relationship between nationalism and democracy in a particular setting - the larger framework is post communist Eastern and Central Europe, the focus is on newly dependent democracies, explored through the case studies of Slovakia and Slovenia.

The year 1989 marks a turning point in world history. The rigid division of Europe into East and West and the bipolarity of the Cold War system disintegrated, with communism as a political system dismantled by 1991. In the wake of the communist multinational federations came successor states, with each accompanied by many ethnic and national conflicts.

The purpose is to seek an answer to two related questions: what is the role of nationalism in the democratic process?; and under what conditions is nationalism less or more compatible with the democratisation process?