Albania

This chapter analyzes constitutional politics in Albania since 1991. It outlines the argument that radical change was only possible due to extreme events opening up windows of opportunity because of their disruptive nature shaking the existing institutions. It also demonstrates that the replacement of the ruling elites led to new political actors coming to power, who were open and ready for a fundamental change. Only two constitutional reforms were sparked by such dramatic events (in 1991 and 1998) and those achieved an improvement in the quality of democracy. Meanwhile, the majority of constitutional amendments took place in non-crisis situations. All of those reforms, promoted by the respective ruling party, were power-oriented and even lessened the democratic improvements.