Albania

Albania is one of the most homogeneous countries in Europe and does not exhibit any major politically salient ethnic cleavages. Instead, ingrained domestic regional divisions between North and South are the major fault lines in Albania. There is economic disparity between the more developed South and the less developed North, as well as between rural and urban areas, and these differences significantly impacted Albania’s democratization and continue to influence voting behaviour. Despite recent changes, people from the North tend to generally vote for the Democratic Party (PD), while voters in the South often support the PS due to the origin of the parties' leaders and the resulting clientelist ties. The post-communist legacy adds another layer to the regional divide, as PD represents a strong anti-communist stance and Northerners suffered from a particular suppression by the regime, whereas the South was the birthplace of the communist dictator Enver Hoxha and PS is the successor of his political party. Allegations of ties with Enver Hoxha’s communist regime are part of the usual discourse to discredit political opponents. This has had a detrimental effect on Albanian political culture and societal relations since parties refrain from dialogue and compromise, and politics is highly personalized and polarized, fueling partisan violence in society. The political scene is dominated by a limited number of actors, primarily the PS and the PD, and a few long-standing smaller affiliates such as the Freedom Party (formerly known as the Socialist Movement for Integration). Possibilities for new political actors to enter remain limited and trust in electoral processes is corroded by recurring allegations of irregularities and clientelist behaviour.  

The fight against corruption and strengthening the judiciary remain Albania’s biggest challenges in the years ahead. In the last five years, Edi Rama’s Socialist Party (PS) government has introduced judicial reforms, including the establishment of the Special Courts against Corruption and a vetting process for new judges. The effects of structural reforms typically take time to materialize in a system with deep-rooted corruption. While improvements in 2021 broke with years of stagnation, trends in the GSoDI data in Absence of Corruption have not reflected a clear shift yet. Therefore, conditional to the success of these reforms, there is potential for positive developments in Impartial Administration and Checks on Government, particularly in the sub-attributes of Absence of Corruption and Judicial Independence.