(Partia Demokratike te Shqiperise; PDSH)
The Democratic Party of Albania was founded in December 1990 by a group of conservatives led by Sali Berisha and became the first party to register and gain legal recognition as an opposition party. It quickly developed a national organization and recruited a membership of some 60,000, which enabled it to become a viable rival to the Socialists. Though the party came in second in the 1991 elections, it was a respectable second, a showing that gave party leaders and members some confidence and momentum in the political competition. Thus, when the Socialist govern- ment weakened in June 1991 and asked the Democrats to join the coalition government, the Government of National Stability, they willingly accepted. By the end of the year, however, disillusioned with the coalition
and with an eye on the 1992 elections, they left the coalition and assumed a role as vociferous opposition. This move enabled them to defeat the Socialists and form a coalition government of their own in 1992, and
it also allowed them to elect their leader, Sali Berisha, as president.
Once in power Berisha and his Democrats set out to accelerate the transformation of Albania into a genuine democracy and market economy. They began by stressing the importance of pluralism and human rights, promoted privatization in business and agri- culture, and encouraged foreign investment and inter- national ties. All of this added up to a good start, to be sure, but the Democrats could not seem to manage power moderately and soon began to abuse it exces- sively. They harassed the opposition, held a fraudulent election in 1996, corrupted the economy, and permit- ted the investment scandal that precipitated a national crisis. By 1997, with rebellious groups taking physical control of some key cities, the country was on the verge of anarchy. At the same time the Democratic Party itself was also fragmenting; as the party progressively became reactionary and shifted right, the moderate leaders and members were pushed aside. Collectively these problems and pressures forced the Democrats to call new elections in 1997—elections in which they were defeated and replaced by the Socialists in the government and presidency. The 2001 legislative elec- tions saw the Democratic Party again run second to the Socialists, but the Democrats turned the tide in the 2005 elections, apparently winning a majority in a bitterly contested election that was marked by charges of fraud.
Minor Political Parties
There are numerous minor political parties in Albania, but none of them approach the two major parties in strength or representation in the People’s Assembly. Among the minor parties are the Agrarian Environ- mentalist Party, the Christian Democratic Party, the Communist Party of Albania, the Democratic Alliance Party, the New Democratic Party, the Party of National Unity, the Republican Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Socialist Movement for Integration, and the Union for Human Rights party. In the July 2005 elec- tions the Republican Party, Social Democratic Party, and the Socialist Movement for Integration each won a handful of seats.
Other Political Forces
Albania has an active and prominent military force, but it has generally stayed out of political affairs since the downfall of Communism. In 2003 the European Union agreed to begin discussions with Albania for a Stabilization and Association Agreement, the first step in what Albania hopes will eventually be full EU mem- bership. Albania also hopes to one day join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The ongoing efforts to gain membership to the EU and NATO are likely to play prominent roles in the political process in years to come.
National Prospects
Following the gradual collapse of Communism and the election of the conservative Democrats in 1992 Albania seemed to be in a position to transform itself smoothly and rapidly from the old Communism to a new democracy. After all, when the Socialists lost the election, they willingly surrendered power and turned the government over to the Democrats; this is a critical test for a democracy, and the Albanians met the test on the first electoral defeat. But the Democrats fumbled their opportunity. Rather than lead the country down a progressive political and economic road, they nearly undermined the fledgling democracy and made a shambles of the economy.
Ironically it was the ex-Communists or Socialists who, having regained power in 1997, had to manage the task of getting the political-economic system back on a democratic and free-market track. This was a formidable task. Nano and his Socialist Party had to regain the confidence of the people, resolve a financial mess, right the economy, restore law and order, and draft an acceptable constitution. Surprisingly, Nano did reasonably well in the early months of his admin- istration. The country did seem to be stabilizing, the economy—with some critical foreign assistance—was slowly turning round, and trust in the Socialists and their government did appear to be growing. However, after these initial successes, and confronted with end- less problems, Nano and his Socialists reverted to their old ways of governing. They conducted wide-scale purges of bureaucrats and judges, became involved in corrupt practices, failed to control rampaging crime waves, and watched helplessly as the economy again began to flounder and inflation began to soar.
In addition to all of this, the Socialists’ rivalry with the Democrats shifted from politics to violence; toward the end of 1997 a Socialist member of parlia- ment shot a Democratic member during a political debate, and in September 1998 the Democrats retali- ated by assassinating a top Socialist official. By this time the two parties were at war and the country was virtually run by two governments, by Berisha and his Democrats in the north and by Nano and his Socialists in the south. In the midst of this chaos Nano resigned as prime minister and was replaced by Pandeli Majko. After several years of chaotic government the situation stabilized in 2001, when Nano again became prime minister. Substantial reforms in the electoral process, in economic affairs, and in efforts to cement the rule of law followed. Albania’s relationships with its European neighbors and with the United States also improved in the early 2000s. The 2005 elections again highlighted the bitter divisions between the two rival parties, however, with Nano refusing to concede defeat to Berisha and the Socialists charging that the elections were fraudulently administered. With the split between the two parties showing no signs of softening, further
reforms and the assistance of the European Union and the United States will be important if Albania is to continue to strengthen its democratic institutions and develop its economy.
Further Reading
Biberaj, Elez. Albania: A Socialist Maverick. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990.
————. “Albania’s Road to Democracy.” Current History 92 (November 1993): 381–85.
————. Albania in Transition: The Rocky Road to Democracy. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999.
Ilirjani, Altin. “Albania and the European Union.” Mediter- ranean Politics 9, no. 2 (June 2004): 258–64.
Kadare, Ismail. Albanian Spring. London: Saki, 1995.
Pano, Nicholas C. “Albania.” In The Columbia History of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. Ed. Joseph Held. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.
Vickers, Miranda. The Albanians: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris, 1995.
Vickers, Miranda, and James Pettifer. Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity. New York: New York University Press, 1997.
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lgeria, a nation of some 32 million people (July 2005 estimate), has been an independent republic since July 5, 1962, following a violent and protracted war of independence with France. In 1965, after a bloodless coup d’état by Colonel Houari Boumédienne, Algeria’s fledgling constitution was suspended and its National Assembly dissolved. A National Charter was approved by 91 percent of the nation’s resident voters in 1976. It affirmed “Islamic Socialism” as the guiding principle of the state and paved the way for a referen- dum on a new constitution, which 99.2 percent of the electorate (93 percent of registered voters) approved later in the same year.This constitution, which remained in force for the next 13 years, provided for a single-party Socialist state with Islam as the state religion and Arabic as the official language. Political ideology was the province of the National Liberation Front (FLN), which the constitution called “a vanguard force, guiding and organizing the people for the building of Socialism.” The fundamental law also outlined the organization and responsibilities of the National People’s Assembly, the executive branch of government, and the judiciary. In reality, however, the 1976 constitution simply legiti- mized the military government that had been ruling Algeria by decree since the 1965 coup. Under the con- stitution Boumédienne became secretary general of the FLN and the head of a powerful executive branch that dominated the National People’s Assembly.
In late 1985 the FLN proposed a revised National Charter more in line with the thinking of Chadli
Benjedid, who had become Algeria’s head of state on Boumédienne’s death in 1978. The new document moved the country away from the dogmatic and aus- tere Socialism of the Boumédienne era, while keeping intact such longstanding national policies as state con- trol of key sectors of the economy and the one-party system. Almost 96 percent of all eligible voters partici- pated in a referendum on the charter in January 1986, with just over 98 percent casting affirmative votes.
When deteriorating social and economic conditions sparked riots throughout the country in October 1988, FLN reformers drafted constitutional amendments that represented an extraordinary break with the past. For the first time in independent Algeria’s history, the state and the FLN were separated; the formation of other political organizations was authorized; the commitment to Socialism was abandoned; the role of the army was circumscribed; and individual rights were emphasized. Just under three-quarters of the 79 percent of the elec- torate who participated in the referendum on the new document in February 1989 approved it.
The initial round of the country’s first multiparty legislative elections, held in December 1991, threat- ened to break the monopoly of political power the FLN had enjoyed for almost three decades. Faced with this challenge, a coalition of high-ranking military officers forced Benjedid to resign, halted the electoral process, and suspended the National People’s Assembly, initiat- ing a period of intense political unrest. In 1996, with an eye toward ending what had degenerated into civil war, the newly elected president, Lamine Zeroual, con-