The subsistence model of the Republic of Slovenia ('RS') is based on four mechanisms of the regulation of social risks. The basic mechanism is represented by employment in the official economy, supplemented by incomes in domain of the shadow economy, social transfers guaranteed by the state, and transfers between individuals, family networks and kinship. In the article, some data are presented that indicate the high level of well-being in the RS that has been achieved in the last ten years. The data are followed by an outline of the genesis of the "traditional Slovenian subsistence model". A thesis is put forward that enabling the population to access all four subsistence sources, leading to a relatively high level of well-being, justifies the privileges of political and economic elites arrived at in the processes of democratisation and privatisation. Therefore, we should not treat democracy in the RS as a moral project since it boils down to an instrumental project, justified by the well-being of the majority of the population, and not democratic principles or 'morals'.
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