Movements in Albania an Analysis on Citizens' Political Perception and Movements Capacities to Trigger Change

SOCIAL (CIVIC) MOVEMENTS IN ALBANIA AN ANALYSIS ON CITIZENS' POLITICAL PERCEPTION AND MOVEMENTS CAPACITIES TO TRIGGER CHANGE 1 SOCIAL (CIVIC) MOVEMENTS IN ALBANIA AN ANALYSIS ON CITIZENS' PERCEPTION AND MOVEMENTS CAPACITIES TO TRIGGER CHANGE SOCIAL (CIVIC) MOVEMENTS IN ALBANIA AN ANALYSIS ON CITIZENS' PERCEPTION AND MOVEMENTS CAPACITIES TO TRIGGER CHANGE Author: Center for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) The author produced this report for the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. The views and opinions expressed in this report are that of the authors and do not reflect those of the Government of the United Kingdom or the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. Tirana, November 2020 FOREWORD This publication deals with a historic overview of the civic movements in Albania after ‘90s, provides a summary of movements in other countries, and dwells into the current landscape of these movements by more specifically analyzing only six of the current movements. The aim has been to look into their capacities, membership, activity level and to assess whether there is a possibility for them to mobilize support and trigger change into the democratization process in Albania. An important part of this report was to survey and measure citizen’s perception of accepting and following these movements. To note here is the fact that the current pre-election phase is a very dynamic one with various developments such as the emerging of new movements and/or political parties or ceasing of other ones. On one side, the public faith in politics and political structures has been eroded in the last years, and on the other side, the citizen’s activism has been fragmented in the best case. As explained by a previous WFD study, the Cost of Politics in Albania is very high and creates an entry barrier into politics for the new movements/parties or politicians, in addition to other formidable hurdles that exist. Under the current circumstances, it is of high interest to look into the present dynamics that favor or disfavor the emerging and strengthening of new civic/political actors in the country. The study was realized by the Center for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), one of the country’s prominent think tanks dealing with this type of research / survey and was supported by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD). The Foundation would like to thank CESS and its researchers for their dedication in preparing this document. The WFD is a UK public body dedicated to supporting democracy around the world. In August 2018, the WFD launched a new three-year Western Balkans Regional Initiative entitled ‘Western Balkans Democracy Initiative’. The initiative is funded by the British Government’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund. Sokol Haxhiu WFD Country Representative CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 7 2. SOCIAL (CIVIC) MOVEMEnts, DEFinition, AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES ................................................................................14 2.1. SOCIAL (CIVIC) MOVEMENTS: A BRIEF OVERVIEW .................14 2.2. THEORIES AND LITERATURE ON THE STUDY OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS .............................................................................22 3. METHODOLOGY ...................................................................... 25 3.1 DESCRIPTION OF TECHNIQUES ................................................25 4. SURVEY RESULts ................................................................... 27 4.1. MAIN FINDINGS ............................................................................27 5. PROFILES OF THE CURREnt SOCIAL (CIVIC) MOVEMEnts IN ALBANIA ............................................................................... 37 5.1. NISMA THURJE .........................................................................38 5.2. MOVEMENT POLITICAL ORGANIZATION .................................40 5.3. ALTERNATIVA MOVEMENT ......................................................42 5.4. EKoALBANIA MOVEMENT ........................................................44 5.5. VETËVENDOSJA MOVEMENT – ALBANIA HQ ...........................46 5.6. ALEANCA PËR MBROJTJEN E TEATRIT ....................................48 6. CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................ 50 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................... 53 (FootnotES) ............................................................................. 55 5 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1. HOW DO YOU OBTAIN INforMATION ABOUT THESE MOVEMENTS? (MORE THAN ONE ANSWER IS POSSIBLE) ...29 FIGURE 2. DO YOU PARTICIPATE IN THE ACTIVITIES OF ANY OF THESE MOVEMENTS? ......................................................................30 FIGURE 3. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THESE MOVEMENTS ARE INDEPENDENT OF THE MAJOR PARTIES? ............................31 FIGURE 4. DO YOU THINK THAT THE CAUSES THEY ADVOCATE ARE OF RELEVANCE for THE COMMUNITY?....................................32 FIGURE 5. WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THESE MOVEMENTS ON THE PUBLIC LIfe AND THE INCLUSION OF CITIZENS IN DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES? ...................................33 FIGURE 6. DO YOU WISH TO TAKE PART IN ANY OF THESE MOVEMENTS? ......................................................................34 LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1. SURVEYS BY REGION ............................................................26 TABLE 2. SELECTION OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CITY IN EACH REGION ................................................................................27 TABLE 3. DO YOU KNOW THE foLLOWING CIVIC MOVEMENTS? (IN %) ..................................................28 TABLE 4. HOW MUCH DO THE foLLOWING MOVEMENTS ATTRACT YOU? (IN %) ..........................................................................30 TABLE 5. HOW DO YOU THINK THE ACTIVITY OF THESE MOVEMENTS SHOULD BE IN THE FUTURE? ..............................................33 TABLE 6. DO YOU PLAN TO VOTE IN THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS?.....34 TABLE 7. IF YOU ARE NOT VOTING, WHAT ARE THE REASONS? ..........35 TABLE 8. IF YOU WERE TO VOTE TOMORROW, WOULD YOU Prefer TO VOTE for? ...........................................................................35 TABLE 9. IF YOU WERE TO SELECT, WOULD YOU Prefer TO HAVE AS A LEADER OF THE COUNTRY: ..........................................36 6 1 INTRODUCTION The collapse of the totalitarian regime in Albania started through a powerful social movement, such as the Student Movement in December 1990. Concertedly with other factors and stakeholders in the Albanian society, this movement soon became a genuine political movement that gave rise to the first opposition political party in Albania and legitimized, after almost 50 years, political pluralism and a new political-economic system founded on liberal democracy and market economy. The movement of December 1990 had the characteristics of a social movement set in motion by a social group with high patriotic awareness, such as students, and concluded with the realization of its historic mission, prompting bottom-up change and creating situations that ushered in political pluralism. After the 1990s, Albania has experienced several ‘waves of social movements’, which have been related to political cycles of governance and have produced situations, factors, and decisions that include issues pertaining to poor governance of elections, protection of the environment and cultural heritage, education, social rights, etc. Subsequent to this reasoning, ‘the first wave of social (civic) movements’ in Albania is related to the period 1990 - 1997; ‘the second wave of social movements’ is recorded in the period 1998 - 2005; ‘the third wave of social movements’ took place in the period 2005 - 2013; and ‘the fourth and fifth waves’ of social movements belong to the 2013 - 2017 and 2017 - 2020 periods. In early 1990s, the establishment of new political parties and their participation in the governance of the country, as well as the establishment of the first trade unions, set up according to the interest of workers across the country, replaced almost entirely the Students Movement. For several years, political parties and trade unions became the only centers where social movements gravitated to bring the desired change for certain causes and goals. During the first decade of the Albanian transition from totalitarianism to democracy, in the mid-1990s, in the aftermath of the general elections of May 1996, which were not recognized and of the collapse of the so-called pyramid schemes in the following months, resulting thus in a deep political and institutional crisis, a new civic movement emerged: the Forum for Democracy. This movement was concentrated around the active action of certain public figures who believed that democratization would be empowered only through free elections, as a key factor that could abate social tensions. On the other hand, some fragmented student movements in 1998 were some additional elements that tried to reanimate the spirit of social (civic) movements. 7 The spirit of social and civic engagement, outside the system of political parties, during 2000 - 2005, on matters such as good governance and environmental issues was started and promoted by several new civic movements notably the Civic Coalition Against Corruption, Mjaft Movement, and the Civic Alliance for the Protection of the Bay of Vlora. Mjaft Movement was the one that draw most the attention of the public. Through its innovative methods of civic mobilization, it triggered civic engagement through

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