Assessing democracy in post-parliamentary elections 2013 in Albania

Assessing democracy in post-parliamentary elections 2013 in Albania

GERDECI, Alba
ALHASANI, Mirela

Recently, there has been a growing interest in the reforms being taken by the Socialist Government in the Republic of Albania, in terms of deepening and promoting a ‘good sustainable democracy’ in the country after two decades of rocky, challenging democratic transition. This majority came in power after the overwhelming victory in the parliamentary elections held in June 2013 being credited in compliance with the European standards in terms of reliability, fairness and political honesty. This paper will evaluate the effectiveness of this ‘successful political rotation’ towards establishment of a governmental accountability tradition with regard to equal, respectful and fair job chances to every official of the public administration sector, which has been the most sensitive corrupt and over-trodden segment as highlighted by the Socialist electoral rhetoric. The research analysis will demonstrate that despite the elections triumph results, the Socialist Government is pursuing and even deepening the democratic deficit in respect of rule of law, and in particular in compliance with the civil status of public administration officials that have to be hired based on professional meritocracy instead of political affiliation be it right or left wing. In order to achieve this analysis, we refer to social constructivism theoretical framework to explore, identify and analyze the specific features of Albanian society, its cultural identity, and its economic context; in addition, we refer to democratization literature on challenges of fragile democracies. Finally, having drawn an objective picture of the current link between the newly elected decision-makers and the social-economic circumstantial factors, we highlight the democratic deficit and provide policy recommendations towards establishment of non-politically biased public administration a very significant component for the integration process of the country. Keywords: Democracy consolidation, rule of law, public administration

Article
PeerReviewed

ISSN 2303-4564

International Burch University

2014-04-24

2449