Political History
Keywords: state, statehood, political thought, political practice, politics from below, politics as the life world
Code: P6-0281 SICRIS
Period: January 1, 2022-December 31, 2027
Range: 5,2 FTE
Head: Dr Marko Zajc
Researchers: Dr Aleš Gabrič, Dr Jure Gašparič, Dr Bojan Godeša, Dr Damijan Guštin, Isidora Grubački, Dr Jurij Hadalin, Saša Hajzler, Tjaša Konovšek, Dr Maja Lukanc, Blaž Štangelj, Dr Nina Vodopivec, Nesa Vrečer, dr. Jurij Perovšek, dr. Ivan Sablin, Una Blagojević.
Political History programme group focuses on the political history of the period from the 19th to the 21st century. Apart from Slovenia’s political history and the history of the preceding states, the programme group also focuses on political history from the global, comparative, and transnational perspective.
BASIC RESEARCH QUESTIONS: WHAT, WHO and WHERE is the state?
In the 20th century, the processes of the deconstruction and reconstruction of statehood transformed and upgraded the Habsburg statehood heritage, but they did not altogether abolish it or replace it with something new. In the 20th century, the concept of state was closely associated with the issue of people’s prosperity and national homogeneity. Socialist Yugoslavia experimented with the political practices that were supposed to accelerate the withering away of the state, though at the same time, its state concept was closely related to the idea of the national through the federal system. In public, the attainment of Slovenian independence was perceived as an equalisation between a nation and state (“Slovenians got their own state”), while with the European integrations, Slovenia achieved a dimension that transcended the national state: EU regulations and legislation. As A. Landwehr emphasised (2003), the concept of state had not “always existed”, and it had also not fallen out of the sky. Our approach transcends the general conviction that the state is merely a neutral framework that constitutes the nation as a political entity. It is a complex, historically conditioned phenomenon that cannot be understood in a one-sided manner, especially not in the narrow national narrative framework.
MODULES
Political thought (M1)
Analysing discourse of the historical actors, the concepts they used, and the changing meanings of these concepts as well as the political performances carried out using language.
Political practice (M2)
We will study the political practice through the phenomena of political parties (continuity of research), parliamentarism, and diplomacy.
Politics from below (M3)
The studies of social movements from below highlight the neglected historical actors and episodes and recognise the mechanisms potentially employed by these actors to influence the changes from below.
Politics as the lifeworld (M4)
To understand the political world, the lifeworld of the actors needs to be understood. Who decides to become a politician, anyway? How do they enter it? How do they shape their personal lives?
JOINT PROJECTS
The 1990–2025 period
P1: PROJECT: Contemporary Political History of Slovenia 1990–2025
Modules M1, M2, M3, M4.
The 1945–1989 period
P2: PROJECT: Socialist Alliance of Working People
Modules M3, M4.
The 1848–1945 period
P3: PROJECT: Slovenian Political Discourse in the Multinational Context: Texts and Comments; Selected Texts of Slovenian Political History: 1848–1945
The period from 1959 to date
P4: PROJECT: Our Own Intellectual History
Modules M1, M4.
