Our democracy without hardware and software?!

By Ben Andoni

The lexicon, definitions and distinctions poured out today about democracy are endless. The ordinary protester of the Flamingos uses it, Rama’s administration uses it, politicians routinely use it, the prime minister himself and Mr. Berisha use it, and their whole entourage. But when you think that democracy was routinely talked about even under socialism, then one pauses a little. The word Democracy was once frequently used by the communist leader Enver Hoxha himself.

Still, in the period after World War II (WWII), when a breeze of peace was blowing after the global catastrophe, thanks also to different schools of political studies, perceptions and interpretations of democracy as a system of government multiplied. Today, there is such inflation of this word that even many state orders that have nothing to do with it label themselves democracies. In our country’s case, the “Flamingo Protest” has now brought it as an alternative within the slogan of “New Albania,” where people believe that the departure of Rama — who has governed for four mandates (now almost personalizing the state with his power) — and putting him and Berisha in prison is enough to change things. Albania can truly become democratic!! “We want Albania, like all of Europe”, was the slogan of the ’90s, but it was first forgotten by those who uttered it most. Today’s naivety resembles more those of the early post-WWII years or the first months of the transition from Socialism to a Liberal Economy. It was a time when everyone believed. There were laws, there were states with separation of powers, and there were administrations that carried objectives.

Yet the best explanations of democracy come with our realities. And it is truly interesting how political scientists have fitted even the concept of democracy itself into the grooves of cybernetics. In their fundamental 1998 work in political science, the well-known trio of political scientists (Richard Rose, William Mishler and Christian Haerpfer), deeply interested in democracy in former communist countries, formulated a lexicon and framework suited to the time. This meant that political institutions and procedures constitute the “hardware” (the physical/technical part) of a democratic system, while public opinion, civic culture and the rule of law serve as the “software” (the program/operating system) that sustains and develops the work. When a country adopts democratic laws (“software”) but lacks a stable state infrastructure or courts to support them (“hardware”), the system malfunctions until it produces consequences. In their important 1998 book, “Democracy and Its Alternatives: Understanding Post-Communist Societies”, they explained their idea with facts and, even more than that, simplified that chaotic part that kills us daily in Albania: the lack of institutions and the unpreparedness of people.

Albania is full of good laws, but ones that are almost unrealizable by an incompetent and utterly unempathetic administration. The consequences are those tied to property and especially to the unreformed Justice system itself, which has already driven the backlog of files at the Court of Appeals of General Jurisdiction alone to the alarming figure of around 48,000 to 50,000 pending files. The average waiting time for a civil case in this court exceeds 7 years, reports an analysis by the Institute for Public and Legal Studies.

In our argument, Albania has this corruption and political problem because trust in institutions, justice and property has never simultaneously been in its modern form. “Let’s catch up on lost time”, wrote at the end of communism the doctor Ylli Popa, who would become head of the Academy of Sciences — but we never do. Worse, when communism fell, we destroyed even that weak version we had of this triad. Throughout history, Albanians have experienced institutions tied only to the power of politics. The Ottoman period tied trust only to the head of the Turkish unit (Pasha, sipahi, etc.) in the locality; in Zog’s time everything was tied to the king’s entourage and the clans close to him. Enver Hoxha took it to the extreme, raising the PPSH’s political institution above the state. This meant that after the ’90s, Albanians identified a strong state only with Berisha’s power (which he is showing even in recent days), to whom they turned for everything; today with Rama (with his boundless power and almost his identification with the state); with Nano, who ruled briefly but within whose liberalization you could see these elements in one form or another. Meanwhile the administration — at least the one directly connected with people, which should have been cold, professional and neutral — submitted to power and narrow interests rather than to public service. Such it remains today, which is why Rama could not bypass it.

As for Justice, communism destroyed it here with the merciless Class War, while the Justice that also suppressed the bar had as its compass only the Legal Codes and “support from the Teachings of the Party,” which it manifested even in slogans inside the courtroom. And it does not end there. After the ’90s: we did not do proper Lustration, and deputies of legislatures have reported on spy colleagues of theirs, while parties even today do not verify their candidates. As for properties, they are accompanied by endless paradoxes, where one side says “return to the old owner” and then the other side produces “the legalization lists” (for those who built without permits). It is claimed that one third of the cases at the Strasbourg Court against Albania are about property! More than for any other country in Europe. And when you cannot guarantee property, you cannot guarantee the institution either, since the institution’s first duty is the guarantee and sanctity of property. And when property is routinely not obtained or is not secure, you need the strongman, the friend, and especially the party.

So, the Albanian of the Flamingos and the other one sitting in the café these days face a long race, where fixing these issues and corruption will take decades to repair. Of course, if the 21st-century Albanian were to wake up, he would understand how difficult it is and how much work a modern Albania will need. At the very least, we owe Albanians the truth that we live in a not-at-all normal country. Albanian software and hardware in these 35 years show us we have a long road ahead, since there is still no service for this concern. Beyond the marathon of daily, monthly, yearly exhaustion…, we still need road, because our Democracy is and will likely remain without hardware and software (Homo Albanicus).