this proposal seeks to map the development and dyanmics of the Slovene party system, placing particular emphasis on splits, mergers and new creations. In comparison with some of the other countries in Central and Eastern Europe the Slovene party system appeared relatively stable until the earthquake election of December 2011 when a new creation and a splinter won 37% of the vote. Nevertheless, this paper will highlight that splits, splinters and mergers were an important feature of the Slovene party political scene before those elections. Following the mapping exercise, the paper will explore the persuasiveness of some of the exisiting frameworks for explaining party system development and show that the Slovene case helps both to show the validity of these cases and avenues in which the theoretical literature needs to follow in order to arrive at a satisfactory explanation.
