Party Systems and Cleavages in pre-Communist Albania. The Kaleidoscope of the German and Greek Diplomacy

• Main Author: Karagiannopoulou, Zacharoula
• Format: Others
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/1234/1/Party_System_and_Cleavages_in_pre-Communist_Albania.pdf; Karagiannopoulou, Zacharoula <http://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/view/person/Karagiannopoulou=3AZacharoula=3A=3A.html> (2009): Party Systems and Cleavages in pre-Communist Albania. The Kaleidoscope of the German and Greek Diplomacy.Darmstadt, Technische Universität, [Ph.D. Thesis]

This dissertation deals with cleavages and parties in pre-communist Albania (1912-1944). It’s a research of the political past of Albania through the kaleidoscope, mainly of the German and Greek, diplomatic sources with the effort to detect the causes of the formation and development of parties in Albania. The main assumption is –that given the “special” social picture of the country and its unique place in the international chessboard– the circumstances would be favorable for the existence of cleavages. The study focuses on socio-economic conditions, the ethnic and religious heterogeneity and the traditional (mainly agrarian) social class structure as well as on the country’s peculiarities (movement for independence, irredenta feelings) and their influence on the political life of the country. By applying the cleavages theory as an analytical framework of analysis, this study shows that a variety of cleavages can be observed in Albania, which can also explain the formation and development of parties in this country. However, Petropoulos’(1997) model concerning the nature of political parties provides the most appropriate approach (for the case) to explain the Albanian party system between 1912 and 1944.