Slovakia: A Story of Reforms

Abstract

Since the fall of communism in 1989, Slovakia has experienced the exciting story of a new democracy and a newly independent country that went through very turbulent and often almost contradictory periods. Between 1993–98, its first six years of existence as an independent state, Slovakia languished in international isolation, considered by many to be the ‘European black hole’¹ due to its illiberal democracy² and the international inexperience of Vladimir Meciar’s government. It was excluded from the process of international integration that brought other transition economies into the framework of the OECD, NATO and the EU. Even worse, Meciar’s government implemented an economic policy that by 1998 had the country on the brink of collapse.