International Organisations’ Efforts on Fighting Corruption in Albania. Success or Failure?

Abstract

This thesis will first explore the question of to what extent has official corruption been prevalent in post-Communist Albania, and whether reform efforts in those countries have been successful. Albania desires to become a member of the EU, but its efforts have been seriously compromised by the unacceptable level of official corruption. Exploration of this first question will necessarily involve a background discussion of the political culture of corruption in Albania during the pre-Communist, Communist, and post-Communist eras. This discussion is necessary to discourage any idea that the issue of corruption became a major problem in Albania only after the emergence of post-Communist capitalism. While the collapse of Communism created spectacular opportunities for corruption throughout the post-Communist region, official corruption did not just suddenly appear for the first time then. Rather, as will be discussed in detail, as all acknowledged academic authorities make great effort to point out, throughout the twentieth century, and even before, official corruption had dominated the politics in this country, and reappeared in public following the fall of Communism.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n2p371