Democracy in Albania – Brian Anderson and Simon Drake

Democracy in Albania

by Brian Anderson and Simon Drake 

     In November 1982 elections for the People's Assembly were held in Albania. The Constitution of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania says clearly that the state is a dictatorship of the proletariat, which rules in alliance with the cooperative peasantry and the people's intelligentsia, and the composition of the People's Assembly, the highest state body, reflects this central tenet. As Lenin – quoted in Enver Hoxha's "Proletarian Democracy is Genuine Democracy", put it:

     "The dictatorship of the proletariat alone can emancipate humanity from the oppression of capital, from the lies, falsehood and hypocrisy of bourgeois democracy democracy for the rich and establish democracy for the poor, that is, make the blessings of democracy really accessible to the workers and poor peasants". 

     It was in this spirit that the entire people of Albania went to the polls, voting by 99.9% for the candidates of the Democratic Front. The 250 deputies included 95 of worker origin and 73 from the cooperative peasantry. 45% had been elected for the first time and 30% were women, while more than half were under 40 years of age. The deputies take up their tasks not as fulltime politicians, but continue to work – drawing their full wages while fulfilling their duty to the Assembly. This ensures that they never lose contact with the people they represent, nor derive financial gain from their position. They have to render account regularly to their constituents, and may be recalled if the electors are dissatisfied with them. All this contrasts with our MPs, who are usually seen by their constituents only at election time, soliciting their votes in order to continue their careers in politics. As Lenin expressed it, again quoted by Enver Hoxha's "Proletarian Democracy"; these full-time politicians hold no real power: 

     "In any parliamentary country... the real business of state is performed behind the scenes and is carried on by the departments, chancelleries and General Staffs". 

     In contrast to this, Hoxha states,

     "The representative organs of the people are the People's Assembly and the People's Councils. Under the constitution of the PSRA 'the representative organs direct and control the activity of all other state organs, which are responsible before them and render account to them'...

     With us, democracy is not a game to mislead the people; on the contrary, it is put into practice. Here there is no dual power, one recognised by the law and the other existing de facto; here there is only one unified state power, which stems from the people and belongs to them".

     The massive and increasing support for the candidates of the Democratic Front at elections for the People's Assembly, People's Councils and People's Courts is reflected in the voting figures, which the British press, with no experience of a truly popular government, like to ridicule. In fact, the figures are an accurate relection of the political situation. Why is it, at a time of world crisis, that the Albanian government receives such massive support from the people? Why should only 5 electors vote against the candidates of the DF at urban polling stations, and only 119 at those in the countryside? Simply because in the post-war period the Albanian people have never known declining living standards, unemployment, inflation, cuts in social services, degeneration of culture, etc. As one elderly cadre of the Party of Labour told the authors:

     "The Party never lied to the people; we never promised what we could not deliver; but what we did promise, we always fulfilled".

     Many, but not all, of the deputies are members of the PLA, and it is the line of the Party which has suided the entire progress of the country since Liberation. The PLA, and Enver Hoxha in particular, enjoy tregendous prestige among the people, and this is reflected in the leading role accorded to the Party in all spheres of life.

     Democracy is not limited to the People's Assembly and People's Councils: it permeates the whole of Albanian life. Thus, the five-year economic plans, the foundation of socialist Albania, are discussed and amended by the people at workplace and neighbourhood meetings throughout the country. This is the strength of proletarian democracy, as opposed to bourgeois democracy: it directly reaches the lives of the working people.

Delegates at a local meeting

     The election of judges and assistant judges to the People's Courts provides another contrast with Britain, where appointed judges with no experience of the lives of working people wield such power. Yet the majority of law-breakers in Albania, never reach the courts, but are criticised by their peers at workplace and neighbourhood meetings.

     In order to strengthen proletarian democracy, Workers' Commissions have been introduced at workplaces. These bodies, elected periodically by the workforce, have the right to investigate any area of the enterprise right up to the top management, and to make recommendations which have the force of law. They also have competence to concern themselves with local services, such as hospitals and schools in which cases a team is drawn from the various enterprises involved. One small example of the work of the Commissions was given to the authors on a visit to the Copper Wire Factory in Shkodra: it had been alleged that office workers in one department had spent an afternoon "skiving"; the Workers' Control Commission investigated, found the case proven, and docked the pay of those concerned! Workers also have, through their trade unions, a direct say in the appointment of foremen and managers.

     We have tried to show, from facts and personal observation, that far from being an undemocratic society, as her many enemies abroad constantly aver in the pages of the "Sunday Times", etc., Albania actually has a democracy unknown in the rest of the world today. It is a democracy for the people, but repression for those who would destroy socialism, for the bourgeoisie and its supporters. Perhaps this is why the writers in our "democratic" press hate it so much!

From "Albanian Life", No 27; No. 4, 1983

https://www.marxists.org/subject/albania/albanian-life/issues/27-04.pdf