The birth of corruption and the politics of anti-corruption in Albania, 1991–2005

Abstract

This paper analyzes the transformation of the signifier “corruption” in the Albanian public sphere during the period 1991–2005 from a discourse analysis approach. The aim is not to trace corruption in its presence and consequences, but to show how different articulations of corruption supported different agendas. More specifically, this paper aims to show how the corruption discourse that dominated Albanian public discussion during the period 1998–2005 served to legitimize a neoliberal order by articulating corruption as inherent to the public sector and to state intervention in the economy. This meant that corruption could be eliminated through neoliberal policies such as privatization and deregulation. Through a discourse analysis of corruption it is possible to politicize the concept of corruption instead of reducing it to a static and inherent feature of Albanian culture and society.

Keywords:

• corruption
• anti-corruption
• neoliberalism
• discourse
• Albania

Notes

1. This tendency to equate corruption with bribery in the public sector continues today. A major 2011 study on corruption in Albania by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime was entitled Corruption in Albania: Bribery as Experienced by the Population and it explored levels of bribery in the public sector. See also UNDOC (2011).

2. A neoliberal developmental model contributed to the reduction both in number and quality of the Albanian public administration through salary decreases and expenditure cuts. The Europeanization agenda, on the other hand, required a larger and highly qualified public administration that had to import and adopt massive amounts of EU legislation. The outcome of this contradiction was a growing quantity of EU legislation that was adopted but not implemented, thus undermining the rule of law.

3. The 2005 electoral slogan of the Democratic Party was “With Clean Hands.”

4. By taking greed as a basic feature of human nature one could ignore its stimulation by the social order.