Structure and Agency during Transition: Labor Representation Strength in Slovenia and Serbia

Abstract

This paper makes an overview and summarizes previous findings within the literature on labor representation strength during transition for two post-Yugoslavian cases, Slovenia and Serbia. Even though both countries shared the same socialist legacy of self-management and relative labor strength during socialism, they ended up as opposite cases of labor representation strength during transition, Slovenia being a case of labor representation success, while Serbia a case of labor representation weakness. The main aim of this paper is to show how different transitional trajectories led to profoundly different outcomes in terms of labor representation strength. In terms of theory, this paper utilizes structure and agency centered approaches in explaining the polar outcomes.