Political culture and democratic consolidation in post-communist Albania: Reassessment of authentic domestic values

by, Florian Çullhaj

Abstract

Political culture and its effects on democratic consolidation in post-communist Albania will be the explanatory axis of this essay. Ontologically, I move beyond the classical political culture conceptualization developed by Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba in the 1960s who argued that civic culture is characterised by congruence between the participatory culture of a democratic citizenry and state political structures and understood political culture in terms of attitude and behaviour of citizens interacting in a stable political environment. This article goes beyond political science epistemic perspectives and adopts an anthropological and psychological perspective developed by Archie Brown, Grigore Pop-Echeles, and Joshua A. Tucker. These authors argue that there are important variations between the conception of culture, politics and attitudes of post-communist citizens and citizens in established liberal democratic countries.