Many authors have considered the political and economic development of the Yugoslav successor states, but few address these issues in detail for Slovenia. In their newest monograph, Slovenia's Transition: From Medieval Roots to the European Union, Bogomil Ferfila and Paul Phillips outline Slovenia's economic transition from independence in 1991 through accession to the European Union in 2004. In this volume, they argue for a successful transition thanks to gradualist, pro-labor policies.

The book's nine chapters begin with several surveys of economic history. The first provides a rapid overview of Slovenia's economic development from the medieval era to 1991, with a focus on the twentieth century. Presenting Slovenia as historically aligned with Western Europe, the chapter makes a rarely heard argument for strong twentieth-century industrial development and closes with a review of the Socialist economy. Chapter Two then traces Slovenia's post-independence economic development, evaluating the period as a success and attributing this to domestically developed, gradualist macroeconomic policies. The analysis details the challenges of 1991–1993, which included the loss of the Yugoslav market and weakened tourism and transportation, as well as the strong economic growth of 1994–2000. The chapter concludes with an outline of the banking system and EU pre-accession talks.

Chapter Three reviews privatization and “co-determination adopted to replace the institutions of self-management” (42) in the 1990s, two transformations that Ferfila and Phillips describe as largely successful. Outlining legislation up to 1993, the authors argue persuasively for the influence of self-management's legacy on these two processes. The chapter concludes with several management case studies and thoughts on potential threats to the Slovenian economy by EU accession. In Chapter Four, Ferfila and Phillips return to 1990s macroeconomic stabilization efforts and the creation of European-like financial markets and institutions. Here, the authors review in detail the gradualist economic policies embraced by the Bank of Slovenia, based on a limited foreign investment strategy, which they again judge as largely successful.

The two most extensive chapters in the book, Chapters Five and Six, address labor relations in the 1990s. Chapter Five begins with the unusual argument that 1988–1989 Yugoslav legislation on foreign investment and enterprises ended self-management in both theory and practice (76–79). Taking 1988 through 2004 as a single period, this chapter considers labor legislation, strikes' shifting focus from political to economic concerns, the reorganization of labor relations organizations, and collective bargaining. Chapter Six assesses labor policies and relations during the 1990s and argues for a relatively flexible post-1993 labor market in contrast to common assessments. Chapter Seven would stand alone well as it provides a brief but thorough outline of the structure of the Socialist economy, the crisis of the 1980s, early 1990s political developments in independent Slovenia, and early 1990s views of Europe. In a similarly brief discussion, Chapter Eight addresses the Slovenian budget in the transition process, taking on this topic in a general fashion. Rounding out the volume, Chapter Nine considers EU economic accession criteria, Slovenia's progress, and its particular challenges, such as agricultural policies. Closing with 2003, the year before EU accession, the chapter outlines some potential threats of EU membership to Slovenian economic sovereignty. The Afterward sums up Slovenia's position in the EU since its 2004 accession, reiterating the country's success in its economic transition and alignment with EU policies.

One of the few monograph-length studies on the Slovenian economy, Ferfila and Phillips's book contains useful information on individual topics, as well as interesting observations, although the volume has certain limitations. The occasional rough phrasing and the use of unclear terms, such as “depression” for the mid 1990s economic stagnation, make the text unnecessarily confusing for the reader. Ferfila and Phillips draw on Slovenian trade publications, as well as academic studies, for their analysis; significantly, the bibliography does not cite several key studies that the authors refer to extensively in their text. Lastly, while published in 2010, the monograph stops short of considering recent post-accession economic developments, such as concerns over corruption or the emerging challenges of national debt, lack of competitiveness, and labor market inflexibility. With these limitations in mind, readers interested in learning about Slovenia can refer to Slovenia's Transition for useful individual chapters on 1990s economic issues and for a Slovenian perspective on them.