Human Rights and Democratization in Albania PDF Download

Author: T. Kaltsounis
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023011038X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
The Democratization of Albania describes a multi-year project designed to promote democracy in Albania through the country's entire educational system. Instructional materials were developed, including a basic manual, to introduce open and interactive teaching by a network of almost 3000 teachers and educators, who were trained through the project on the proper application of the materials developed. To sustain the network, five democratic civic education centers were established in as many universities throughout the country. Success with young people led the author to go beyond describing the project and propose in the book a new model for accelerating the process of democratization. This can be achieved by empowering ordinary citizens through education to actively participate in building their country's democracy.

Author: United States. Congress. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Albania
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description

Author: Elez Biberaj
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429982046
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
This book focuses on the trials and tribulations of Albania's efforts to create a democratic political order. It assesses the degree and significance of changes since the early 1990s, providing a detailed account of the transition from Communist Party rule to multiparty competition.

Author: Fred C. Abrahams
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479838098
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
In the early 1990s, Albania, arguably Europe’s most closed and repressive state, began a startling transition out of forty years of self-imposed Communist isolation. Albanians who were not allowed to practice religion, travel abroad, wear jeans, or read “decadent” Western literature began to devour the outside world. They opened cafés, companies, and newspapers. Previously banned rock music blared in the streets. Modern Albania offers a vivid history of the Albanian Communist regime’s fall and the trials and tribulations that led the country to become the state it is today. The book provides an in-depth look at the Communists' last Politburo meetings and the first student revolts, the fall of the Stalinist regime, the outflows of refugees, the crash of the massive pyramid-loan schemes, the war in neighboring Kosovo, and Albania’s relationship with the United States. Fred Abrahams weaves together personal experience from more than twenty years of work in Albania, interviews with key Albanians and foreigners who played a role in the country’s politics since 1990—including former Politburo members, opposition leaders, intelligence agents, diplomats, and founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army—and a close examination of hundreds of previously secret government records from Albania and the United States. A rich, narratively-driven account, Modern Albania gives readers a front-row seat to the dramatic events of the last battle of Cold War Europe.

Author: Florian Cullhaj
Publisher: Edizioni Nuova Cultura
ISBN: 886812825X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
The nonviolent revolution of Albania reinforced the belief in the West that democracy is an exportable good if Western democracies implement a right combination of pressure and aid in collaboration with internal political actors. Western pressure, coupled with technical and economic assistance was domestically understood as a conditio sine qua non for the successful implementation of the first phase of democratic reforms. However, efforts to establish a democracy in Albania raised the following question. Will the framing of the appropriate constitution and economic system - building democratic institutions and developing positive attitudes towards them - take place among Albanians through ongoing familiarization? Accordingly, the failure of the 1994 referendum on the new constitution, the overnight changes of the 1998 constitution in 2008 and the permanent stagnant economy strengthened the belief among Albanians that a democratic constitution and a functioning market economy cannot flourish if they are not rooted in an environment pervaded by a democratic culture. Furthermore, if democracy has to persist and become consolidated, it is not enough just to skillfully engineer institutions without taking into account the effect of political culture. Ultimately, this book attempts to show that the efforts made by the Western countries to export democracy to Albania and to promote consolidation through political tools generalized from other alien realities, without taking into consideration Albania’s internal political culture values, have turned out to be in the long run a ‘political abortion’. On the other hand, this book should be construed neither as a critique of democracy nor as a defense of it; it is also not a balance sheet of the success or failure of democracy and democratization processes in Albania, but rather it aims at presenting an alternative approach to democratic consolidation through Albania's authentic cultural heritage.

Author: Fred Abrahams
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479896683
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
In the early 1990s, Albania, arguably Europe’s most closed and repressive state, began a startling transition out of forty years of self-imposed Communist isolation. Albanians who were not allowed to practice religion, travel abroad, wear jeans, or read “decadent” Western literature began to devour the outside world. They opened cafés, companies, and newspapers. Previously banned rock music blared in the streets. Modern Albania offers a vivid history of the Albanian Communist regime’s fall and the trials and tribulations that led the country to become the state it is today. The book provides an in-depth look at the Communists' last Politburo meetings and the first student revolts, the fall of the Stalinist regime, the outflows of refugees, the crash of the massive pyramid-loan schemes, the war in neighboring Kosovo, and Albania’s relationship with the United States. Fred Abrahams weaves together personal experience from more than twenty years of work in Albania, interviews with key Albanians and foreigners who played a role in the country’s politics since 1990—including former Politburo members, opposition leaders, intelligence agents, diplomats, and founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army—and a close examination of hundreds of previously secret government records from Albania and the United States. A rich, narratively-driven account, Modern Albania gives readers a front-row seat to the dramatic events of the last battle of Cold War Europe.

Author: T. Kaltsounis
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781349289158
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
A multi-year project designed to promote democracy in post-communist Albania through the country's entire educational system.

Author: Klodiana Beshku
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443852600
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Albania and Europe in a Political Regard is a multidisciplinary work which aims to develop different points of view in the field of social sciences. In this sense, it is not by chance that the chapters cover a variety of different disciplines like history, sociology, political science and philosophy. These chapters stand alone and, at the same time, create a whole network of relationships between Albania and Europe. An important element of this work is its multidimensional considerations of Europe; it is conceptualised on a number of different levels throughout the chapters, sometimes as a continent, sometimes as an organization, and other times as a leader. In some chapters, Europe is understood in terms of European integration or European civilization. In others, Europe is simply the idea of the continent and its reflections in the Albanian society. The main axis that drives the chapters is the idea of Albania in relation to Europe – how this relationship is understood, how it has worked in the past, and how it works today. The idea of Europe in this book is conceptualised and explored in a number of different ways, from the idea of “European modernity” to a “soft power”, from a “construction of identity” to a “model of behaviour”, according to each author’s varied point of view and discipline of studies. All the nine chapters in this volume utilise different ways of thinking and approaches, but are all connected by a common axis, that is, Albania and Europe in a Political Regard.

Author: Adriatik Mema
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 109

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Book Description
The collapse of the communist regime in 1990 and the establishment of political pluralism marked the beginning of a new era for Albania, one of transition from communism to democracy. In addition to undertaking domestic political and economic reforms, Albania began to establish political and economic relations with European and Euro-Atlantic organizations as a means of making the transition to democracy irreversible. Membership in these organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Union (EU), was a long-term objective of Albania's new political leadership. This thesis examines their important roles in helping the country to democratize, carry out democratic reforms, and meet membership criteria. It also analyzes their impact in shaping the country's domestic political development, and their role in the promotion of stability, security and prosperity. It concludes that the involvement of these organizations has enhanced not only the quality of the reforms, but also the sustainability of democratic achievements in Albania. Finally, the thesis considers the prospects for Albania's future democratic development, the OSCE's probable future role in the country, challenges beyond NATO membership, and above all, further reforms to be accomplished in light of prospective EU membership.

Author: Elvin Gjevori
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319730711
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Albania’s democratic transition – one of the longest and most arduous of post-communist Europe – has failed to produce consolidated institutions. Therefore, this book undertakes the first comprehensive review of Albania’s military and judicial reform – from 1992 to 2009 – to ascertain why military reform produced substantial institutionalisation and judicial reform did not. The author analyses the different outcomes by outlining how political elites constructed the interests that shaped their subsequent political actions. Overall, this book presents a novel theoretical account for institutionalisation in emerging democracies and sheds light on two of Albania’s most important democratisation reforms. The book will appeal to practitioners working on institutionalisation reforms, institutionalist and democratisation researchers interested in post-authoritarian transitions, and area study scholars focusing on Albania and the Western Balkans.