The Deformed Politicization of the Public Administration in Albania

• Author: Kozeta Vuksanlekaj
• Pages: 34-50

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS DANUBIUS Vol. 15, no. 1/2019

34

Kozeta VUKSANLEKAJ1

Abstract: Although there are many studies regarding the public administration and the civil service,

the novelty of this paper stands in the fact that the observations of a civil servant with a long experience

in the public administration are focused in the negative consequences of “militancy” and the “deformed

politicization” of the public administration. This paper is specific because it is focused in the study of

concrete cases of the relationship between civil servants and the political leaders with the aim of finding

solutions that will fight corruptive and militant behaviours in the public administration. For this reason,

this research will bring innovation to the field of scientific research. Militancy in Albania is the main

factor that prevents the formation of a stable and professional public administration with capable people

of integrity who are devoted to serve the public. Reality has witnessed that “militancy” in Albania has

turned the public administration into a shelter for the suvival of people who are professionally

uncapable. It has turned it into a tool for political parties to reward activitistsfor their support in electoral

campaigns and into a source of corruption.

Keywords: militancy; civil service; civil servant; political functionary

1. Introduction

To write a research pa per, you have to firstly touch the wound of the reality of the

topic you have chosen. Then you should try to analyse the causes of this reality,

trying to always put in front new ideas and suggestions on how to contribute in

healing this reality which is affected by these negative phenomena. For this reason,

the main topic of this research will be the problem of militantism, which even after

27 years of attempting to instill democratic values, remains an issue of the public

administration in Albania.

1 Head of Procurements and Projects, The Regional Council of Shkodra, PhD candidate, Juristic

Faculty, University of Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo, Address: St.Migjeni, Apartment 1015, 1st Floor,

Entrance 1, Shkoder, Republic of Kosovo, E-mail: kozetafrangaj@gmail.com.

AUDJ, Vol. 15, No. 1/2019, pp. 34-50

The Deformed Politicization of the Public

Administration in Albania

JURIDICA

35

In this work, several questions are discussed. A few of them being: Why the civil

servants should be independent from politics? W hy t he deformed politicization is

harming the public administration? How militantism was born in Albania? Which

are the main responsiblities of the public administration in Albania? Thus, the focus

of this paper is to explore the consequences of militantism in the public

administration in Albania and to analyze the reasons behind the development of this

negative phenomenon after the 90s when the country had just started to set the

foundations of a democratic sta te. A taskthat was not easy for a country that had to

experience 50 years of the cruelest dictatorship in an isolated socialism which

brought poverty and changed the human essence. Indeed, there were a number of

reforms in Albania, but the main part of the public administration, specifically “the

civil service” continues to be in the in the hands of corruption and militantism.

Compared with other developed democratic states that in certain periods have dealt

with the phenomenon of militantism, sanctioning the will of political leaders with

laws for the employment of militants in the public administration, Albania has a very

unique case. Albania has a unique case because the law of the civil service has

sanctioned for 22 years, starting in 1996, the implementation of the merit principle

to recruit the staff of the public administration. This being said, our country has a set

of laws with very high standards. But the main problem in Albania remains the

“implementation of the law”. For this reason, this paper is not going to be focused

on analyzing the content of the law of the civil service, but on the issue of laws not

being implemented.

By observing the relationship between political leaders and the civil servant, and

exploring the roots of militantism in Albania, it is aimed to encourage the writing of

laws for the depoliticization of the public administration in accordance with t he

historic, political, social and economic context of our country. The analization of

facts is the best experiment to discover the unchanged regulations and to find the key

of the negative phenomena that trouble the society in its whole and the public

administration specifically.

The legal reforms of the civil service in the developed democratic states for

eradication of the deformed politicization in the public administration should be

studied and carefully examined. But they should never be used by the albanian

legislator because the historical timeline of the development of democracy and the

cause of the birth of militantism in these countries are very different from the reality

and the history of how militantism was born in Albania.