Protestant movement is thought to be a beginning of liberal traditions on Slovene territory. Social circumstances for classical liberal ideas were unfavourable due to lack of strong urban population. Liberal traditions on Slovene territory have always been far from the classical conceptions of liberalism. Freedom has been mainly rooted in the national body and not in theindividual. Liberalism was therefore dealing with the problem of national freedom and building not with the problem of personal freedom. In therms of political theory, Slovene liberalism has not contributed not even a single important book or scholar. It has proven difficult for Slovene liberalism to develop its own distinctive identity under the pressure of fights for buildingthe nation, under the pressure from the political Catholicism and socialism. Those have been the reasons why liberalism ended up in a daily politics as more or less national liberalism, except the period of first Yugoslavia, which has always taken side of hegemonic force of that particular era.
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