The paradoxes of instrumental acceptance of democracy

The development of post-socialist societies is characterised by a temporal incongruency in the transformation of different societal spheres. This study on political culture in Slovenia is therefore focused on the incongruency between the transformation of political culture and the democratisation of the political system. Analysing data from Slovenian opinion surveys, the authors indicate major changes in politically relevant attitudes and draw some preliminary conclusions about their function in the stabilisation of the new political and economic system in Slovenia. As far as political culture is concerned, two general factors of potential influence on the stability of democracy in Slovenia are to be found: the conditional acceptance of democracy and internal inconsistencies in politically relevant attitudes. The prevailing acceptance of democracy in Slovenia is instrumental - democracy is validated as the best way of promoting future economic and social well-being. Moreover, the current general support for democracy is not followed by changes in other politically relevant attitudes, just as latent authoritarianism is manifested in the ethnocentric and xenophobic attitudes of the Slovenian population.