Slovenia in the Comparative Political Economy of the Eastern European Periphery: From Research Laboratory to Marginalisation

The article provides a review of comparative political economy debates on the post-socialist trajectories of Central and Eastern European economies (CEEEs). Before the 2008 global financial crisis, studies focused on the institutional diversity of dependent capitalism in the CEEEs; postcrisis, scholars began to analyse the dependent character of CEEEs’ macroeconomic structures. Besides discussing the analytical strengths and limitations of these debates, the article aims to understand why Slovenia, found in the centre of the initial debates, has largely disappeared from contemporary discussions. We argue this ‘research trajectory’ of Slovenia is related to the shifting (limits of the) dominant research designs and topics, along with the specific historical trajectory of capitalism in Slovenia before and after the 2008 crisis.