The area that is now the Slovak Republic was for a number of centuries part of various multi-ethnic states. The position of Slovak representatives in the parliaments of these states reflected the unequal standing of their nation as such, and the history of the Slovaks is very much that of their struggle to achieve their own national identity and state sovereignty. In the wake of November 1989 the development of Slovak society was very much influenced by a process of national emancipation whose issue was the creation of an independent Slovak Republic. In November 1992 the Deputies of the Federal Assembly...