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The paper deals with two kinds of illusions: the former ones, according to which a socialist economy could become efficient, and the present ones, according to which privatization ought to transform the former inefficient socialist economy into an efficient economy. Until less than a decade ago, acquisition of income based on the ownership of the means of production - the essence of capitalist exploitation - was unacceptable for half of the world; therefore "the people", state or society were their owners. A mere ban of capitalist exploitation, however, suffices for a static (allocational) and dynamic (consumption related) inefficiency. The transition from a socialist to a market economy began with an illusion that market mechanisms would transform the former socialist countries easily and straightaway into welfare states. All former socialist countries declared a resolute faith in capitalist market mechanisms and a firm commitment to full scale privatization. The transition is reflected by constitutional foundations of property rights. The new constitutions in East-Central Europe depart radically from their socialist predecessors and return to the principles of the French revolution. The right to private property is declared amongst basic, natural and unavoidable rights of man in all newly born capitalist countries. Privatization ought to ensure efficiency, fairness in the distribution of wealth and welfare, and the abolition of a monopoly party system. In reality, these aims have often been reduced to a political one: strengthening and legitimating of a new (old) political elite. Thus, the velocity of privatization - which is essentially a process, and not a "switch" - becomes a criterion of the quality of the economic transformation. But unwarranted expectations did not materialize, and illusions were gradually replaced by disappointments. Even the excitement of Western observers about political freedoms and economic changes in the postcommunist societies disappeared when it became clear that the amount of money needed to prevent nostalgia for the previous social rights far exceeded the alms they were willing and able to dispense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses reasons of the failure of the Slovenian government's pension reform proposal in general referendum based on statistical analysis of public opinion polls and content analysis of referendum campaign. In the time of economic crisis and in the context of genera anti-reform mood, the pension reform bringing reduction of existing rights didn't have much chances to succeed from the very beginning. Opinion polls show that low public support t the government was crucial for the reform proposal failure. Support to the reform propos was denied by voters gravitating towards the political centre, by those who don't support the government coalition, by non-partisan voters and by those with secondary and lower education. Since they represent the largest part of the electoral body, no referendum can succeed without their support. The most important arguments used in the referendum campaign were those related to (in)justness of the proposed reform and to (un)founded macroeconomic argument for the reform. Thus, if a structural reform is put on the referendum, a high public support t the government proposing the reform and the perception that, in spite of its urgency an unpleasantness, the reform is essentially fair, are crucial conditions for its adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The allocation of funding for international development cooperation is, according to several international studies, significantly shaped by public opinion. An extensive body of recent research demonstrates relationship between the impact of mass media, public opinion and the size of development aid. According to the results of public opinion polls, international development cooperation enjoys high public support in Slovenia, yet at the same time, Slovenia is one of the few EU member states where this support has decreased since the country's membership in EU. The paper focuses on the analysis of international development cooperation reported in Slovenian mass media. We explore the processes of gate keeping and agenda-setting in the media to evaluate the impact of these processes on the representation of specific topics. Under-representation of international development cooperation in the media indicates that the media are not influenced by public opinion (polls). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]