This paper explores the internal democracy of political parties in Albania and their current organizational structure. It examines the evolution of political parties from their creation after communism fall, to the complex functioning structures of today. Political parties in Albania emerged as a new trend in 1991, opposing the single party-state model of the communist era, and promising boundless democracy and freedom to citizens. 26 years on, these promises are still pending as political parties have continuously failed to embark on serious reforms. The paper examines the main elements within the political parties’ structures, functioning models, organization and internal democracy, as well as the Albanian legislation on political parties and the parties’ own statutory documents, providing thus an overview on the internal democracy level of political parties in Albania. The study makes a qualitative comparison of the autonomy, involvement and participation in decision-making within party structures. The paper argues that the popular parties of horizontal nature are now replaced with clienteles’ parties of vertical nature. Furthermore, the study provides important recommendations for a new democratization process of the representative system, where political parties have an important role to play

Author: Afrim Krasniqi