GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE AND POLITICAL SYSTEM
Political power in 1970 was solely in the hands of the ruling elite,
that is, the leadership of the Communist Party (officially the Albanian
Workers' Party). No political, economic, or social activity occurred
without the sanction of the Party. Although the facade of a people's
republic under constitutional rule was established in 1946, the reality
of a rigid police state was clearly evident from the beginning, and no
true democratic processes had been allowed to develop. The greatly
heralded People's Assembly, people's councils, and people's courts were
elected from a list of Party candidates; only one candidate was
presented for each office, and there was no popular selection or popular
choice. In effect, the Party was the government and directed all aspects
of the lives of the people--from the cradle to the grave.
The governmental structure and political system of the Albanian People's
Republic have their roots in the National Liberation Movement, which
came into existence during the Italian and German occupations of World
War II. Communist Party members dominated the leadership and, while
combating Italian and German occupiers, fought against other national
resistance groups for postwar control of the country. Enver Hoxha, first
secretary of the Albanian Workers' Party in 1970, and Mehmet Shehu,
premier and second ranking Party member, were wartime leaders of the
Communist resistance forces. Superior organization and the establishment
of crude governing bodies called national liberation councils
facilitated the Communist takeover of the country after the cessation of
hostilities. These councils later became the basis of the postwar
governmental structure.
The Communists moved rapidly after the end of the war to prevent the
reestablishment of the monarchy and to secure their own position of
power. Operating under the banner of a mass organization known as the
Democratic Front, the Communist Party strengthened its hold on the
country and in early 1946 promulgated a Constitution based on Yugoslav
and Soviet models. This Constitution provided for a unicameral
legislature, a collective executive branch, and an independent
judiciary. Actually, the Albanian Workers' Party, formerly the Communist
Party, which is mentioned in the Constitution as "the vanguard
organization of the working class," uses the formal governmental
structure as the instrument for governing the nation and for
implementing its own policies.
The Albanian People's Republic in its twenty-five years as a Communist
nation has remained as rigidly authoritarian and Stalinist in its
approach to government as it was at the end of World War II. The Party
is all pervasive, the leadership is glorified to an extreme degree, and
Party pronouncements are treated as infallible doctrine. The average
citizen casts his ballot in periodic elections for local and national
offices, but two conditions invariably exist: a candidate for office is
a member of the Party, and only one name is listed for any particular
office. It has become standard practice for well over 99 percent of the
electorate to vote and for over 99 percent of those voting to approve
the single candidate. Absolute control of the government, the economy,
and the cultural life of the country is assured by a system that places
the leading officers of the Party in the top positions of government.
Albanian history as a Communist state can be divided into three distinct
phases based on outside influence: the Yugoslav period, the Soviet
period, and the Chinese period. Yugoslav influence began with the
founding in 1941 of the Albanian Communist Party, in which some Yugoslav
nationals played leading roles, and lasted until Yugoslavia's expulsion
from the Cominform in 1948. From 1948 until 1961 the Albanians looked to
the Soviet Union for assistance and advice, and after 1961 Communist
China became the foreign power wielding greatest influence in the
country.
In 1970 Albania continued as the only European ally of Communist China.
Hoxha and Shehu continued the harsh polemics with the Soviet Union; made
tentative gestures of friendship toward Yugoslavia; continued their
tirades against Western imperialism; and, in general, tried to present
themselves to the world as the embodiment of true Marxism-Leninism.
FORMAL STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT
The People's Assembly
The Constitution established the People's Assembly as the legislative
branch of the government and refers to it as "the highest organ of state
power." Representatives to the Assembly are elected from a single list
of Party-selected candidates for a term of four years in a ratio of 1
representative for every 8,000 inhabitants. The Assembly meets in two
regularly scheduled sessions annually, and there is constitutional
provision for the convening of extraordinary sessions.
All legislative power is vested in the People's Assembly, although
proposals for legislation and for constitutional amendments can be made
by the Presidium of the People's Assembly or the Council of Ministers,
as well as by members of the Assembly itself. Bills become laws after an
affirmative vote by a simple majority of the Assembly, but an amendment
to the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote. In practice, the
Assembly listens to the reading of bills drawn up by its Presidium and
then votes unanimous approval.
The Assembly elects officers to preside over its meetings and direct its
affairs. Usually a chairman, two vice chairmen, and a secretary are
elected for the four-year term of the Assembly. The chairman of the
People's Assembly in 1970 was Abdyl Kellezi, who was concurrently a
candidate member of the Party, Political Bureau (Politburo). One of the
two vice chairmen and the secretary were also members of the Party
Central Committee. The Assembly has the power to appoint commissions, to
carry out specific functions, or to conduct investigations.
The Presidium
The Constitution provides that the People's Assembly elect its
Presidium, which is made up of a president, two vice presidents, a
secretary, and ten members. The president of the Presidium becomes the
titular chief of state and, in 1970, this office was held by Haxhi
Leshi, a member of the Party Central Committee. Enver Hoxha was one of
the ten members of the Presidium, and a majority of the other Presidium
members concurrently held high Party positions. Because of the
infrequent and short meetings of the Assembly and because the real
power, that is Party power, is held by the Presidium, it has become the
actual legislative branch of government.
The Presidium performs several functions besides that of conducting the
affairs of the Assembly between sessions. It calls for the elections of
representatives to the Assembly and convenes its sessions. It has the
power to issue decrees and to ratify international treaties. The
Presidium also appoints or recalls diplomats, receives credentials and
letters of recall of foreign diplomats, and appoints and recalls the
supreme commander of the armed forces. Between sessions of the Assembly,
the Presidium is empowered to decree general mobilization and a state of
war and to appoint and relieve ministers as proposed by the premier. The
Presidium also designates ministry jurisdiction over various
enterprises according to the recommendations of the premier.
The Council of Ministers
The Council of Ministers, referred to as the government in the
Constitution, is the highest executive organ and constitutionally is
appointed by, and responsible to, the People's Assembly or its
Presidium. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, by virtue of his
position, is also the premier or prime minister. Mehmet Shehu, who
assumed this position in 1954, still held it in 1970. Shehu was also a
member of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee. The Council of
Ministers is composed of the chairman, three deputy chairmen, thirteen
ministers, and the chairman of the State Planning Commission, who has
ministerial rank. The Constitution provides for the establishment of new
ministries and the abolishment or combining of old ones.
The Council of Ministers, as a unit, is constitutionally responsible for
preparing the overall economic plan and the budget, which must then be
approved by the People's Assembly. After approval, which is pro forma
and usually granted without discussion or debate, the council is
responsible for implementation. The council also directs the monetary
system; assures protection of citizens rights and the maintenance of
public order; directs the organization of the army; oversees foreign
relations; and, in effect, administers the entire economic and cultural
life of the nation.
The interlocking of the Party with the Council of Ministers has been
standard practice since its inception. In 1970 eight of the seventeen
principal officers of the council were members or candidate members of
the Politburo, six were Central Committee members, and the remaining
three were regular members of the Party. With every key position
occupied by a Politburo member, the Party elite maintained direct
control over the entire governmental structure.
Local Government
People's councils are the constitutional agencies on the local level.
Elected for three-year terms to administer districts, cities, and
villages, they are responsible to their constituencies as well as to the
higher organs of state power. According to the Constitution, the
councils are charged with economic and cultural matters and direct the
affairs of the administrative organs within their jurisdictions.
Councils are responsible for maintaining public order, for implementing
laws, and for drawing up local budgets. The Constitution also requires
that the councils call periodic meetings of their constituents to keep
the people informed on council activities.
Each council chooses an executive committee from among its membership,
and it is through this committee that the actual work of local
government is accomplished. Other committees or departments may be
established at the discretion of the executive committee for the
performance of specific tasks or for the supervision of a particular
enterprise. In performing such functions, the special committees and
departments are constitutionally responsible to the people's councils
and to corresponding sections at higher levels of the bureaucracy. The
people's councils are elected from lists of the local organizations of
the Albanian Workers' Party.
COURT SYSTEM
The people's court system consists of the Supreme Court and courts at
each of the territorial subdivisions. Other types of courts may be
created by law. The Constitution provides that the people's courts are
independent of the administration. A law on the organization of the
courts passed in 1968, however, specified that the "people's courts will
be guided in their activities by the policy of the Party. In carrying
out their responsibilities, they must strongly rely on the working
masses and submit to their criticism and control."
Decisions are made collegially. In cases where the Supreme Court and
district courts have original jurisdiction--that is, when a case is to
be first heard by them--assistant judges participate in the ruling,
unless the case is such that the law specifically states otherwise.
People's courts at the village and city levels decide cases with the
participation of an assistant judge from the district court and two
so-called social activists, who are actually local Party members. If a
case is before the Supreme Court by appeal, three judges make the
verdict; when a case is before a district court by appeal, assistant
judges participate.
Trials are generally open to the public. In order to facilitate the
political and social education of the population, courts are held in
places of employment, villages, and any other place that makes them more
accessible to the people.
Assistant judges from the district courts and several social activists
make up the village and city courts. The social activists are elected
for one-year terms by a people's meeting. This level of the court system
has jurisdiction over minor social crimes and simple civil cases.
The district courts are composed of a chairman, judges, and assistant
judges. The judges are elected for three-year terms by the general
population, and the People's Council appoints the chairman from among
the elected judges. The district courts have original jurisdiction in
all penal and civil cases unless otherwise specified by law. They also
hear appeals from lower court decisions.
Military courts, called military collegiums, are appointed by the
Presidium of the People's Assembly to operate at the district level.
They are composed of a military judge and several military assistant
judges. These courts have original jurisdiction over crimes committed by
military personnel.
The highest court is the Supreme Court. It has original jurisdiction in
important cases that the chairman of the Supreme court takes over from
the district courts. It also hears appeals from the rulings of all lower
courts.
Supreme Court judges are elected for four-year terms by the People's
Assembly. The court consists of a chairman, deputy chairmen, and
assistant judges, the exact number being determined by the Presidium of
the People's Assembly. The Supreme Court is broken down into collegiums
to handle different types of cases, such as penal, civil, and military.
It also sits in a plenum in order to issue directives concerning legal
practices, to hear appeals from decisions made by its collegium, and to
study the operation of the court system in its entirety.
POLITICAL DYNAMICS
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat
As officially defined by the Constitution, the state is a form of
dictatorship of the proletariat. The power of the state constitutionally
belongs to the workers and peasants, represented locally by the people's
councils, which supposedly make up the political base of the state. In
legislation and in official documents dealing with elections, it has
been stated that the people not only enjoy freedom of choice concerning
candidates but also have the right to supervise the work of their
elected representatives and the right of recall if they are
dissatisfied. In practice, such people's democracy does not exist, and
the dictatorship of the proletariat--that is, the rule of the people
over themselves--is a facade behind which the real dictatorship of the
Party elite operates.
The Constitution provides for direct, secret vote to elect
representatives to all governmental bodies, from the people's councils
in villages to the highest organ of the state, the People's Assembly.
The voters themselves do nothing on their part to be registered in the
electoral lists. These lists are drawn up for every type of election by
the people's councils and are supposed to include all citizens who reach
age eighteen on or before the day of the elections.
The democratic character of these elections is allegedly guaranteed by
the procedure or right for nominating candidates. This right legally
belongs to the Party, the Democratic Front, trade unions, and social
organizations and is exercised by the central organs of these
organizations and their organs in the districts. Nominations, with Party
approval, also are made at the general meetings of workers and employees
in the enterprises and state farms, of soldiers in their detachments,
and of peasants in their agricultural collectives or villages.
All meetings for the selection of candidates are held under the auspices
of the Democratic Front, in whose name all the candidates are presented
for election. The only legal requirement of a candidate is that he enjoy
the right to election, that the organization which proposes him confirm
its intention in writing, and that he accept his candidacy for that of
the Assembly was a "vivid expression of the socialist democ-him. In
practice, all candidates are preselected, and the meetings simply
confirm the Party choice.
Political power, according to official documents, is thus vested in the
broad masses who, through various organizations to which they belong,
choose the candidates to be elected to all state organs, including the
people's courts. The candidate who receives one more vote than half the
number of voters registered in the electoral zone is proclaimed the
winner and becomes, in theory, the agent representing the sovereignty of
the people.
The highest organ of state power, according to official dogma, is the
People's Assembly, composed of representatives elected by direct vote
who exercise the sovereignty and will of the people. The aim of the
People's Assembly, this dogma alleges, is to carry out the main
functions of directing and supervising the people's democratic state.
The Assembly's sphere of action includes practically all the political,
economic, social, and cultural fields through the passage of laws.
"These laws," according to an official document published in 1964, "on
their part determine the juridical form of the line pursued by the
Albanian Workers' Party in building socialism in Albania." The same
document that stated that the laws passed by the Assembly were but the
juridical form of Party policies declared that the concentration of all
state power in the hands of the Assembly was a "vivid expression of the
socialist democracy of the state system of the People's Republic of
Albania."
Another document, published in 1963, asserted that economic power and
political power were indivisible and that a combination of the two
formed the state power. The representative nature of the socialist
state, the document declared, was rooted in the socialist economic basis
of the country, derived from the state ownership of the means of
production and from the property of the cooperative and collective
organizations, principally the agricultural collectives. All mines and
subsoil resources, waters, forests and pastures, industrial enterprises,
the means of air, rail, and sea communications, post, telegraph,
telephones, radio broadcasting stations, and banks had become the
property of the people.
It is thus the contention of the regime that the creation of the
socialist sector of the economy not only placed all economic levers in
the hands of the people but also altered old relations in production,
resulting in a planned organization of the economy. Economic planning,
it is argued, makes possible the elimination of exploitation of man by
man. Also, through the planned organization of the economy the people
are guaranteed the right to work.
With a view to regulating relations in work, the regime passed a series
of legislative acts that were subsequently embodied in the Labor Code.
As a result of this legislation, it was asserted, conflicts between a
worker and an enterprise were no longer possible, for the enterprise was
the property of the state and the state was of and for the worker.
Accordingly, both the worker and the enterprise strove to achieve the
same results, namely, to increase production and improve the material
and cultural conditions of all the workers. To assure their own welfare,
the workers in turn had to assume certain obligations; they were duty
bound to guard socialist property, which was the "sacred and inviolate
basis of the people's democracy, the source of power of the homeland and
of the welfare and culture of the workers."
The theoretical mechanism evolved for the exercise of power through
freely elected representatives had no resemblance to the actual locus of
power and the state institutions created to wield this power. The source
of political and economic power was neither the workers and peasants nor
the organs presumably elected by them. A perfect example was the actual
power and influence of the People's Assembly, to which official
documents attributed the power to appoint all the higher state organs
and on which all state organs were dependent. In actual practice, the
People's Assembly held only two sessions a year, each lasting about two
days; the delegates heard reports made by Party and government
officials, approved without debate all bills and appointments presented
to them, and then adjourned. The Presidium of the People's Assembly was
also given wide constitutional powers in the fields of legislation and
control of the state apparatus, but in reality its main function was to
promulgate draft laws submitted to it by the Council of Ministers.
The Albanian Workers' Party
National Organization
The real source of all power was the Party, whose all-powerful Politburo
was the country's top policymaking body. But even this body, composed of
eleven regular and five candidate members, was under the firm control of
Party First Secretary Enver Hoxha, who has headed the Party since it was
founded on November 8, 1941, and Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, who
emerged as the military strategist in the Communist-dominated Army of
National Liberation during World War II.
Although Hoxha, as first secretary and as the only surviving member of
the small group of Communists who founded the Party, was considered the
leader and the foremost Albanian Marxist-Leninist, he and Shehu have
shared almost equal power since 1949 (see ch. 2, Historical Setting).
The real base of their power has rested in the security and armed
forces, and Hoxha and Shehu have divided this power. As minister of
defense until 1953, Hoxha personally controlled the armed forces, and
since then he has controlled them through Beqir Balluku, his lieutenant
(see ch. 9, Internal and External Security).
Shehu, as minister of the interior from 1948 to 1954, personally
controlled the security forces, composed of the Directorate of State
Security (Drejtorija e Sigurimit te Shtetit, commonly known as the
Sigurimi), the People's Police, and the Frontier Guards. Since then he
has controlled them through his brother-in-law Major General Kadri
Hasbiu, who succeeded Shehu as minister of the interior in 1954 and who
still held that position in 1970.
The top executive branches of the Politburo were the four-man
Secretariat and the various directorates of the Central Committee. In
1970 the Secretariat was composed of Hoxha as first secretary and Ramiz
Alia, Hysni Kapo, and Xhafer Spahiu as secretaries. Hoxha supervised the
whole work of the Secretariat; the other three secretaries were
responsible for general areas of operation. Alia was responsible for
ideological affairs, Kapo for organizational matters, and Spahiu for the
state administration.
Policy guidelines adopted by the Politburo were passed by the
Secretariat to the appropriate directorate, which elaborated and
drafted them in final form for implementation by the respective Party
and state organs. The directorates had direct connections with all
implementing bodies. For instance, the Directorate of Agitation and
Propaganda, known as Agitprop, issued directives not only to the
Agitprop sections of the District Party Committees but also to all
propaganda outlets in the government, mass organizations, and the armed
and security forces.
The most important directorates were the: Directorate of Cadres and
Organizations, headed by Hysni Kapo, the third ranking man in the Party
hierarchy; Directorate of Agitation and Propaganda, headed by Ramiz
Alia; Directorate of Education and Culture, headed by Nexhmije Hoxha,
wife of the first secretary; Directorate of State Administrative Organs,
headed by Llazi Stratoberdha; and Directorate of Mass Organizations,
headed by Politburo member Adil Carcani.
When important policy issues were decided by the Politburo, special
commissions were created in the Central Committee to draft implementing
guidance for a specific decision. Thus, for instance, in the spring of
1968 the Politburo decided on a complete reorganization and
reorientation of the country's educational system. A Central Commission
on Education was immediately created in the Party Central Committee; the
commission was headed by Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu and included some
fifty experts in the ideological, academic, and military aspects of
education.
After a year's work the commission completed its report and, in June
1969, submitted it to the Central Committee, which gave its formal stamp
of approval. In December of the same year the government submitted a
bill to the People's Assembly for the reorganization of the educational
system; in its preamble the bill said that it was based on the report of
the previous June as approved by the Party Central Committee (see ch. 5,
Social System).
The Central Committee was the next highest echelon in importance in the
Party organization. In 1970 it was composed of sixty-one regular and
thirty-six candidate members. It was to the Central Committee that the
Politburo submitted its policy decisions for formal approval. As a rule,
in recent years the Central Committee has approved Politburo reports and
decisions with little, if any, debate. But there have been occasions
when the Central Committee has been called upon to decide on issues of
the utmost importance for the country. For example, in February 1948 the
Central Committee was convened to discuss and decide the issue of a
possible merger of Albania with Yugoslavia. Although the forces favoring
such a merger were in the majority, the dissenting voices were
sufficient to block the proposed merger. Another Central Committee
meeting, held in September of the same year, purged the top Party group
that had advocated the merger with Yugoslavia. A similar crucial issue
arose in the fall of 1961 on the question of relations with the Soviet
Union. The Central Committee approved the Politburo decision to break
with Moscow and issued a declaration to that effect.
The Party's ideological principles, tasks, and organizational structure
were delineated in the Party's statute, originally adopted by the First
Party Congress in 1948 and amended several times since then. In it,
control by the Party was detailed specifically, and the statute rather
than the Constitution was the fundamental law of the land. According to
the statute, the highest leading organ of each organization was: the
general meeting for the basic Party organizations; the conference for
the Party organizations of districts and cities; and the congress for
the entire Party.
The guiding principle of the ideological and organizational structure of
the Party was the Leninist dictum known as democratic centralism. As
described in the statute, this principle provided in theory that the
leading organs of the Party were elected from bottom to top at general
meetings, conferences, and congresses; these organs were obliged from
time to time to give account of their activities before their Party
organizations.
Strict Party discipline was to be maintained under any circumstances,
the minority being subject to the majority; decisions were to be reached
on the basis of so-called free discussions but, from the moment a
decision was reached, unanimously or by a majority of votes, all Party
members were obliged to execute it without question; and the decisions
of the higher Party organs were binding on the lower organs. The statute
also provided that collective leadership was the highest principle of
the leadership of the Party and that the elected organs as well as the
basic Party organizations examined and solved collectively all Party
problems.
The Party statute considered the Party Congress as the highest Party
organ. The congress, usually called every four years, heard, examined,
and approved the reports of the Central Committee and of other central
Party organs; reviewed and made changes in the Party program and
statute; determined the Party's tactical line on major policy problems;
and elected the Central Committee and the Central Control and Auditing
Commission and fixed the number of members of these two bodies. In
actual practice, however, the Party Congress merely heard and approved
reports submitted by the Politburo.
According to the statute, the Central Committee, which should meet in
plenum at least once every four months, performed such formal functions
as electing both the Politburo for guiding the affairs of the Central
Committee between sessions and the Secretariat for "guiding the
day-to-day affairs of the Party, especially for organizing the control
of the execution of decisions and for the selection of cadres." During
the period between two congresses the Central Committee guided the
activities of the Party; represented the Party in its relationships with
other parties, organizations, and institutions; organized and guided
different Party institutions; named the editors of the Party's central
press organs and granted permission for publication of the local Party
press; distributed the cadres and the means of the Party and
administered the central treasury; and guided and controlled the
activities of the central organs of the people's democratic authority
and social organizations by means of Party groups in them.
Regional Organization
Regionally, the highest Party organ is the Party Conference at district
and city levels, which is supposed to meet once a year and is comparable
to the Party Congress at the national level. In practice, the periodic
Party Conference becomes a pro forma meeting held for the purpose of
displaying unanimity of opinion. Between conferences, operations are
conducted by Party committees, and real power is exercised by a bureau
of each committee that usually consists of about eleven members, who
must first be approved by the Party Central Committee in Tirana. Bureau
membership includes two secretaries who are the leading Communist
officials in the city or district and, by virtue of their positions, the
most powerful individuals.
The principal functions of the district or city committees are to guide
the activities of all Party organizations in the district or town so as
to assure the precise application of the Party line; approve the
establishment of basic Party organizations; maintain records on members
and look after their ideological and political education; distribute
within the district or city the Party cadres; and administer the Party
finances. More importantly, the district or city committee guides and
regulates the activities and work of the local governmental bodies and
social organizations by means of Party groups within them.
The statute describes the basic Party organizations as the foundations
of the Party because they serve to link the working masses of the town
and village with the Party. The basic Party organizations are
established in factories and plants, agricultural enterprises, machine
tractor stations, villages, units of the armed and security forces,
state administration, schools, and other work centers where there were
no less than three Party members. When deemed necessary and where there
are less than three Party members, there can be created joint groups of
the Party and of the Union of Albanian Working Youth. These groups are
directed by a Party member chosen by the district or city committee.
The basic Party organizations are assigned a multitude of duties and
responsibilities. They must ensure that Party orders are fully
implemented, the masses are politically oriented, the Communists obtain
the required ideological and political education, new members are
accepted into the Party, the masses are mobilized in production work,
the activities of the mass organizations are checked and guided, and
control is exercised over all economic sectors and over all local
governmental bodies.
The statute provides that in the armed forces Party affairs are to be
directed by the Political Directorate of the Ministry of People's
Defense and in the Ministry of the Interior they are to be directed by
appropriate political organs. Party organizations in the armed forces
operate on the basis of special instructions issued by the Party's
Central Committee. All chiefs of political branches in military units
and installations must be Party members with no less than five years of
membership. The political organs in the military units are required to
maintain close contact with the local Party committees (see ch. 9,
Internal and External Security).
The latest official figures for Party membership were given by Party
First Secretary Hoxha in his report to the Fifth Party Congress in 1966.
He placed the total membership at 66,327, of which 3,314 were candidate
members. Since the Fourth Party Congress in 1961 the membership had
grown by 12,688. According to Hoxha, the social composition of the Party
membership was as follows: workers, 32.9 percent; collective farmers,
25.8 percent; private farmers, 3.2 percent; state, Party, and mass
organization officials and armed forces personnel, 37.2 percent; and
students and housewives, 0.9 percent. Of the total Party membership,
women comprised 12.5 percent. Hoxha also said that nearly 68 percent of
all Communists lived in cities and only 32 percent in villages, despite
the fact, he commented, that the rural population was three times as
large as that of the cities.
Party Operations
A fundamental factor in the Party's exercise of political power and
control is the selection of candidates for all elected positions.
Although the candidates for such elective organs as the People's
Assembly, the people's courts, and the people's councils at all levels
are formally nominated by the meetings of mass organizations or of
workers and peasants, they have been, in fact, handpicked by the local
Party organizations and approved by the Party Central Committee.
The procedure at all nominating meetings is standard and simple: a list
of candidates, previously prepared by the Party district or city
committee, is read; the qualifications of each candidate are described;
and the list is unanimously approved. Since the first national and local
elections held in 1945 in which the list of candidates included
non-Party people, lists have been restricted to Party members only.
Veterans of Hoxha's partisan forces of the so-called War of National
Liberation still predominate among candidates for office.
A similar situation prevails with regard to the appointment of
government officials. After each national election, the People's
Assembly has appointed a new government. The procedure for this
appointment has never varied: at the first meeting of the new People's
Assembly the Party First Secretary has submitted for approval the list
of the new ministers, which invariably has received unanimous approval.
Because of purges in the top echelons of the Party, especially in the
late 1940s and early 1950s, the government list has undergone several
changes. Since the elimination of the pro-Yugoslav faction in 1948,
however, these changes have affected mostly the technical and economic
ministries. The three key posts in the government, however--namely,
those of prime minister, minister of the interior, and minister of
defense--have been consistently held by Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu or
their trusted lieutenants.
The appointment of all government officials as well as the managers of
the state economic enterprises rested formally with the agencies
involved, but no official has been appointed without the prior approval
of the appropriate Party organization. In reality, all key positions are
held by Party cadres who have been selected and appointed by the Party
district or city committees. The Party statute empowers the basic Party
organizations in all governmental organs and economic enterprises to
check and guide the activities of all officials and to see that they are
properly oriented in the political and ideological fields. The prime
requisite in filling these positions is Party loyalty.
Party Schools
In 1970 the Party operated a number of schools and courses for its
cadres as well as three research and study institutes, attached to the
Central Committee. The highest school was the V.I. Lenin Institute,
headed by Fiqrete Shehu, wife of the prime minister. It was attended by
the higher and more promising Party members.
The three Party institutes were the Institute of Marxist-Leninist
Studies, headed by Nexhmije Hoxha, wife of Enver Hoxha; the Institute of
Party History, headed by Ndreci Plasari, who was also editor in chief of
the Party's theoretical monthly, _Rruga e Partise_ (Party Path); and the
Institute for Economic Studies, under the direction of Myqerem Fuga. In
addition, there were a number of secondary Party schools for training
low-level Party functionaries and one-year schools for refresher
ideological courses, attended both by Party officials and leaders of
mass organizations.
The Party also operated intermittently, as the need arose, political
courses and study groups for its activists and propagandists. In 1969,
for example, more than 20,000 study centers were organized throughout
the country for the study of the official, newly published _History of
the Workers' Party of Albania_. The teaching program of all the Party
schools and study centers included such topics as the importance of
Communist education; the origins and development of Communist morality;
socialist attitudes toward work and property; the importance of
patriotic education; the history, theories, and tactics of the
international Communist movement; and the history and statutes of the
Party.
Mass Organizations
In its exercise of power and control over every phase of the people's
lives, the Party also utilizes several mass, or social, organizations,
the most important of which are the Democratic Front, the Union of
Albanian Working Youth, the Union of Albanian Women, and the United
Trade Unions of Albania. In a speech at the Fourth Congress of the
Democratic Front held in September 1967, Enver Hoxha said that the mass
organizations, as components of the system of the dictatorship of the
proletariat were "levers of the Party for its ties with the masses" and
that they carried out their political, executive, and organizational
work in such a way as to enable the Party directives to be correctly
understood and implemented by all segments of the population.
Party Secretary Hysni Kapo, in a speech delivered at a Party seminar in
January 1970, declared that the Party carried out its mission through
its own organizations and through the activities of its "levers, the
mass organizations, such as the trade unions, youth, Democratic Front,
women's, and the people's councils," thus revealing that even the
people's councils were mere Party levers. By relying on these powerful
levers, Kapo added, the Party guaranteed its links with the masses and
obtained their support for its policies. He remarked further that,
although there were not Communists in every family in the country,
everyone in the family belonged to some kind of organization.
The Party has set the implementation of its line as a general primary
goal for all mass organizations. Considered as powerful Party levers,
they are required to convey the Party line to the people and to bring to
the Party the people's attitudes and grievances. As Party instruments
they must mobilize, organize, and orient the people during the process
of the building of socialism. The mass organizations also assist the
Party in its control over the administration and management of state
enterprises and initiate new actions and new movements in all work
centers.
The Party places particular importance on the Union of Albanian Working
Youth, described officially in such terms as the "greatest revolutionary
force of inexhaustible strength," a "strong fighting reserve of the
Party," and a "vital force of our revolution." According to the Party
statute, the union operates directly under the guidance of the Party,
and the union's local organizations are guided and checked by the
appropriate district or city Party committees. Organized in the same way
as the Party, the union has parallel basic organizations, district and
city committees, a Central Committee, a Politburo, and a Central Control
and Auditing Commission. In 1967 official reports credited the youth
organization with 210,000 members, ranging in age from fifteen to
twenty-five and, in a few cases, even older.
The main function of the union is to select and prepare future Party
members. It is also required by the Party to control all Pioneer
organizations, which embrace all children from seven to fourteen years
of age; to see to it that all Party directives and policies are
implemented by the country's youth, especially in schools and in
military units; and to mobilize the youth into so-called voluntary labor
brigades to work on production projects. The Party often gives the union
special storm trooper or Red Guard types of missions to perform. For
example, in February 1967 Enver Hoxha assigned to the organization the
mission of shutting down all places of worship in the country; within a
period of a few months, the union had accomplished its mission.
The Democratic Front, successor to the National Liberation Front, was
defined by Enver Hoxha, who has headed it since 1945 and was still its
president in 1970, as the greatest political revolutionary organization
of the Albanian people and as a powerful weapon of the Party for the
political union of the people. In 1970 the Democratic Front continued to
be a key element in the Party's control mechanism. Considered officially
as the broadest mass organization, it was supposed to give expression to
the political views of the entire population and to serve as a school
for mass political education.
The tasks and objectives of the Democratic Front, as set forth in its
statute and as constantly reiterated by Party leaders, include the
strengthening of political unity among the people and the mobilizing of
the people for the implementation of Party policies. The spreading of
the Marxist-Leninist ideology is also a task of the front, as is the
purging of any attitudes that are considered backward and reactionary.
In essence, the front is an instrument of the Party, expressly designed
for the political control of the entire population. Enver Hoxha declared
in a speech to the Fourth Congress of the Democratic Front in 1967 that
all citizens over age eighteen were members of the front, including
Party members and members of all other mass organizations.
The Union of Albanian Women is also referred to as a powerful weapon of
the Party. The union, headed in 1970 by Vito Kapo, wife of Secretary of
the Party Central Committee Hysni Kapo, controls and supervises the
political and social activities of the country's women, handles their
ideological training, and spearheads the Party's campaign for the
emancipation of women. The campaign was launched by Hoxha in June 1967
and renewed in October 1969 in a Hoxha speech to the Party Central
Committee.
The Union of Albanian Women, according to reports by visitors has a good
record of assistance to the Party in making legal, economic, and social
equality for women a reality. By 1970 women shared responsibility in the
government at all levels, had entered all the professions, and worked
side by side with men for equal pay in most occupations.
By 1967 the union was able to boast that more than 284,000 women took
part in production in some way, mostly in industrial plants and
agricultural collectives. In the same year there were about 40 women,
out of a total of 240 deputies, in the People's Assembly; 1,878 women in
the people's councils; and 1,170 in the people's courts.
Since 1967 task forces of women from the cities have been dispatched to
tour backward regions, particularly the highlands, explaining the
Party's line on the emancipation of Albanian women. Reforms such as
giving women equal rights to inherit property, an equal voice in the
people's councils, and equal political rights, however, have created
considerable hostility in a country where man has traditionally been the
master of the family.
The tasks of the United Trade Unions are similar to those of the
Democratic Front, albeit on a more limited scale. During ceremonies in
February 1970 marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of
the trade unions, it was stated that they were created by the Party,
that they had since struggled to implement the Party line, and that they
recognized the Party leadership as the "decisive factor of their force
and vitality." It was stated further that they were created jointly with
the dictatorship of the proletariat for its consolidation and defense
and as an important component part of this dictatorship.
In a conference in Tirana on February 10, 1970, Gogo Nushi, then
president of the trade unions, boasted that they had become powerful
levers of the Party in implementing the Party line among all the
country's workers, who had grown from some 30,000 in February 1945 to
about 400,000 in February 1970. At the same conference Politburo member
Adil Carcani, in a speech dealing with the functions of the trade
unions, attributed to them the task of exercising control over all
workers.
Other duties and responsibilities of the trade unions in 1970, according
to Tonin Jakova, General Secretary of the General Council of the United
Trade Unions of Albania, were to carry out the political and ideological
education of the workers; to influence all the other strata of the
population so that the class ideology should gradually become the sole
ideology of the society; to broaden their control and sphere of action
in all fields of life--political, ideological, cultural, artistic,
social, economic, and educational; to increase labor productivity by
increasing work norms; and to struggle against old traditions and
backward customs, with emphasis on religious beliefs. In listing the
duties and responsibilities of the trade unions not a word was said
about their safeguarding the interests of the workers, such as improving
their living and bargaining with the management.
Organizationally, the United Trade Unions of Albania was composed in
1970 of three general unions--the Trade Union of Workers of Industry and
Construction, consisting of workers in industry, mines, construction,
and transportation; the Trade Union of Workers of Education and Trade,
made up of the workers in the state administration, trade, health,
education, and culture; and the Trade Union of Workers of Agriculture
and Procurements, composed of workers in agriculture, forestry, and
procurements. Over 2,000 individual trade union organizations existed in
enterprises, factories, plants, offices, schools, and other work
centers and cultural and social institutions.
In the exercise of political power through the Party, the mass
organizations, the state organs, and the security and armed forces, the
Tirana rulers have consistently followed Stalinist methods of rule. In
major policy speeches these rulers have in recent years often praised
Stalin's political system and have consistently attempted to emulate it
in Albania. As _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the People) phrased it on
April 13, 1963, "without reinstating Stalin and his work, [throughout
the Communist world] our revolutionary movement and the cause of
Marxism-Leninism can make no headway."
FOREIGN RELATIONS
After centuries of foreign domination, Albania in 1912 was ill prepared
for independence, and the chaos brought by the Balkan wars and by World
War I allowed little opportunity for the development of statehood. One
of its first moves in foreign relations was to secure support for its
independence from some of the great powers of Europe. In the years
between World War I and World War II, Albanian foreign policy was
dominated by the Italians.
In the years immediately after World War II, Albania was a satellite of
Yugoslavia, which in turn was a satellite of the Soviet Union. This
situation deprived Albania of any initiative in foreign affairs, and it
remained out of the mainstream of Eastern European affairs until 1948,
when ties with Yugoslavia were broken and Albania became a full-fledged
satellite of the Soviet Union. Albania's position vis-a-vis the other
satellite countries was improved when it came under the direct tutelage
of the Soviet Union; it then became the recipient of economic aid,
military assistance, and military and economic advisers, not only from
its powerful sponsor but also from the other Communist nations. In time
it also became a member of the Warsaw Pact and the Council for Economic
Mutual Assistance.
Soviet influence in Albanian affairs was pervasive from 1948 to 1960
but, from a material point of view, Albania benefited from the
relationship. The Soviets canceled a large debt and sent aid and
advisers to help develop the backward Albania economy. Internally, the
ruling elite, headed by Enver Hoxha, maintained a rigid regime of the
Stalinist type. In foreign affairs the country became a cold war
participant completely accepting directions from Moscow.
Its thirteen years as a Soviet satellite were years of turmoil for
Albania, particularly after the death of Joseph Stalin and the rise of
Nikita Khrushchev to the Soviet leadership. Khrushchev's policy of
seeking a rapprochement with Yugoslavia worried both Hoxha, the Party
leader, and Shehu, the premier, because of the difficulties they had
encountered in purging their Party of a strong pro-Yugoslav faction
while in the process of securing their own positions of power. In the
Albanian view Stalin had been a great hero, and Tito of Yugoslavia, a
great villain. Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin and wooing of Tito
brought consternation to Tirana, but reliance on Soviet aid apparently
tempered Albanian reactions.
During the 1950s the Albanian leadership, coaxed by Moscow, made some
attempts at restoring normal relations with Yugoslavia. After the riots
in Poland and the revolt in Hungary in 1956, however, the Albanians
raised strident voices against Yugoslavia's so-called revisionism--that
is the alleged perversion of Marxism-Leninism--which they asserted was
the basis for the troubles afflicting Eastern Europe. According to
official Albanian dogma the two greatest evils in the world were
revisionism and imperialism, personified, respectively, by Yugoslavia
and the United States. Toward the end of the 1950s it became apparent to
Hoxha and Shehu that they were closer ideologically to Peking than to
Moscow, and only the latter's economic aid prevented an open break.
In 1960, as Khrushchev sought to line up Communist parties for a
condemnation of Communist China, Albania refused to participate and, by
the end of the year, the Soviet-Albanian dispute was made known openly.
By the end of 1961 diplomatic relations between the two countries were
severed, Soviet aid ceased, and Soviet advisers and technicians left
Albania, to be replaced by those of Communist China. Although not
formally breaking off diplomatic relations, the other Eastern European
Communist countries also halted aid programs and withdrew advisers.
Khrushchev then became the object of violent attacks in the Albanian
press, being castigated as more of a revisionist than Tito. Khrushchev
counterattacked to defend himself but, in addition, used Albania as a
proxy for violent propaganda blasts that were obviously directed against
the Chinese Communists.
After the final break with the Soviet Union, Albania entered the third
stage of its Communist existence--the alliance with Communist China.
Stages one and two had been as a satellite, first of Yugoslavia and then
of the Soviet Union. In stage three, if not a satellite, it was a client
of a powerful sponsor. Albania, throughout the 1960s and into 1970,
continued to require the economic support of an outside power. Communist
China has provided that support, though apparently on a much reduced
scale.
In return for Chinese support the Albanians accept the Chinese view of
world affairs and speak for their sponsor in Eastern Europe and in the
United Nations. Albania successfully defied Moscow, but its internal and
international positions remained weak. In 1968 Hoxha withdrew his
country from the Warsaw Pact in protest against the invasion of
Czechoslovakia, but this was primarily a symbolic move because Albania
had not participated in Warsaw Pact affairs since 1961.
By 1970 Albania was attempting to normalize relations with its Balkan
neighbors, but its main propaganda thrusts continued to be against
revisionism and imperialism. Overtures toward both Greece and Yugoslavia
were made in 1970, which may indicate that the Hoxha regime recognized
the futility and danger of an isolationist policy. Official attitudes
toward the Soviet Union remained as they had been for ten
years--strident and abusive--but better relations were being sought
among Eastern European nations as well as with some non-Communist
states. Seemingly the regime recognized that Communist China was a
distant ally, that the Chinese could not support the Albanian economy,
and that, if Albania was to remain a viable national entity, it would
have to relate to its European neighbors and, in effect, become a part
of Europe.