Jože Damijan

Jože P. Damijan (full name: Jože Pavlič Damijan) (born 14 January 1967 in Lomanoše, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Slovenian economist and politician.

Damijan is a tenured professor at the Ljubljana School of Economics and Business (a constituent faculty of the University of Ljubljana).

Damijan briefly served as minister without portfolio in the First Janša Cabinet. In his ministerial capacity, he was responsible for "coordinating and supervising the country's development strategy implementation". In 2018, Damijan was a contender for the Bank of Slovenia governor position.

Biography and career

Early life Jože Pavlič Damijan was born in Gornja Radgona in 1967, to Jože, a construction foreman, and Marija, a cook. According to Damijan, his family was working class and politically anti-communist. The family was largely deprived of land holdings during the Yugoslav post-WWII nationalisation and collectivisation process, and discussions about the faults of communism were a constant in the family.

Damijan attended elementary school in the nearby town of Lomanoše and lived with his grandparents during his early childhood until his mother could build her own house.

Academic career In 1992, Damijan became a post-graduate researcher at the Ljubljana School of Economics, later an international economics research assistant, and a research fellow at the Institute for Economic Research.

Damijan resigned from his ministerial post in March 2006 - only 3 months after assuming the position - citing personal reasons. Damijan later revealed that he resigned because he grew disillusioned by what he saw as a kleptocratic administration, using their official functions as a "smokescreen" for personal enrichment with the aim of "never having to work again in their lives". The initiative was entitled The Coalition of the Constitutional Arch, drawing its name from the eponymous the post-WWII compact in Italian politics that ostracised neo-fascist political forces from government. All ruling political parties remained committed to the principal for the duration of the First Italian Republic, ending when Silvio Berlusconi entered into a governing coalition with a neo-fascist political party in 1994.

During deliberations on who could be the prospective PM candidate for the initiative to lend legitimacy to the political project, Damijan, as the principal signatory and presenter of the initiative,

Private sector work Damijan, along with his wife, and has, in this capacity, worked for a number of state companies and institutions. For over a decade, Damijan has been publishing a popular economics blog (one of the most widely read blogs in the country).

Political views An economic liberal at the time of his ministerial work, Damijan has radically shifted his political economy outlook over the course of his life and career, coming to advocate a greater role of government in the economy. Damijan has more recently promoted such measures as increasing the minimum wage, a universal basic income, funding infrastructure projects with public debt, more stringent government regulation of the economy, and greater government involvement in the economy and financial systems.