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Albania
ALBANIA'S COMMUNIST PARTY
Albania's communist
party, in early 1992, was in a state of transition, and its future
remained uncertain. Known from 1941 to 1948 as the Albanian Communist
Party, from November 1948 as the Albanian Party of Labor (APL),
and from June 1991 as the Socialist Party of Albania (SPA), the
communist party was organized along lines similar to the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union. The 1976 constitution recognized the
special status of the APL, which controlled the political, cultural,
and economic life in the country. According to the Article 3 of
the constitution, the party is the "leading political force of
the state and of the society." The party was organized on the
principle of democratic centralism (see Glossary), under which
the minority had to submit to the majority and could not express
disagreement after a vote. The highest organ of the party, according
to the party statutes, was the party congress, which met for a
few days every five years. Delegates to the party congress were
elected at party conferences held at the regional, district, and
city levels. The party congress examined and approved reports
submitted by the Central Committee, discussed general party policies,
and elected a Central Committee. The latter was the next highest
echelon in the party hierarchy and generally included all key
officials in the government, as well as prominent members of the
intelligentsia. The Central Committee directed party activities
between party congresses and met approximately three times a year.
As in the Soviet Union, the Central Committee elected a Politburo
and a Secretariat. The Politburo, which usually included key government
ministers and Central Committee secretaries, was the main administrative
and policy-making body and convened on a weekly basis. Generally
the Central Committee approved Politburo reports and policy decisions
with little debate. The Secretariat was responsible for guiding
the day-to- day affairs of the party, in particular for organizing
the execution of Politburo decisions and for selecting party and
government cadres.
The Ninth Party Congress of the APL was convened in November
1986, with 1,628 delegates in attendance. Since 1971, the composition
of the party had changed in several respects. The percentage of
women had risen from 22 percent in 1971 to 32.2 percent in 1986,
while 70 percent of APL members were under the age of forty. The
average age of members in the newly elected Central Committee
was forty-nine, as compared with an average age of fifty-three
in the previous Central Committee. The new Central Committee elected
a Politburo of thirteen full and five candidate members. In his
speech at the Ninth Party Congress, Alia did not indicate any
significant departure from the policies of Hoxha, but he launched
a campaign to streamline the party bureaucracy and improve its
efficiency. Alia urged that standards of cadre training and performance
be raised in an effort to rid the system of bureaucrats who were
so concerned with protecting their privileges that they blocked
the implementation of new economic policies. The Politburo also
instituted a policy whereby cadres in positions that were vulnerable
to graft and corruption would be rotated on a regular basis.
At the Ninth Plenum of the Central Committee in January 1990,
Alia announced further modest reforms. Meetings of all lowerlevel
party organizations would be open to the masses; secretaries of
party organizations could serve no longer than five years; one-third
of the membership in state organs had to be renewed each legislative
term; and at each congress of the APL a third of the delegates
would be replaced.
These reforms, however, appeared to be ineffectual after Albania
underwent radical changes in its political culture in 1990-91.
As was the case in the Soviet Union and in other countries of
Eastern Europe, attempts at cautious reform in response to unrest
gave rise to widespread manifestations of discontent. On December
11, 1990, student protests triggered the announcement at the Thirteenth
Plenum of the Central Committee of the APL that a multiparty system
would be introduced in time for the general elections set for
February 1991. Following the multiparty election in the spring
of 1991, the APL, later the SPA, emerged as the dominant partner
in a coalition government (see Reform Politics, this ch.). The
SPA was defeated in the spring 1992 general election, receiving
only 26 percent of the vote.
Data as of April 1992
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