Gerti Sqapi

Digital technologies and artificial intelligence are advancing at a rapid pace in the contemporary world, and they are having a profound impact on nearly every aspect of social and economic life. In the current fast-paced digital era, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is causing disruptive changes in both national and international economies, in addition to fostering innovation and efficiency. AI's impact is widespread and diverse, affecting labor markets, business models and practices, the workplace environment, decision-making procedures, public policies, income inequalities, marketing strategies, and, of course, the ethical considerations related to the development of AI in education and other aspects of social relations. Remaining competitive, productive, and ethical in a world on the move, dominated by digital technologies and artificial intelligence, is the main challenge that different economies and societies face today in this changing environment. Given these recent developments, it is necessary to comprehend and study the impact and transformation of relationships brought by Artificial Intelligence's integration in various societal domains, including here economic growth, labor market necessities, (new) employment patterns, the widening or reducing income inequalities, sustainable business practices, education, etc.

The procurement of goods and services by public institutions, commonly known as ‘public procurement,’ is an important element of the market economy (Naudé & Dimitri, 2021). In most OECD member countries, public procurement accounts for a significant percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with an average around 10-15% of GDP (OECD, 2015). In Albania’s case, based on official data from Albanian institutions such as the Ministry of Finance, INSTAT, as well as regular public procurement forecasts and the European Commission’s Progress Report, the public procurement market in Albania represented approximately 9.4% of GDP in 2022, compared to 10.7% in 2021 (EU Progress Report, 2023). Even though public procurement constitutes only around 10% of Albania’s GDP, it still represents a sizable portion of public spending, therefore its effective use is essential. This study analyzes how artificial intelligence (AI) can improve public procurement’s efficiency and transparency while also assessing AI’s capacity to identify and prevent corruption and illicit conduct. Public procurement, a key tool for innovation and meeting the needs of public administration, is an area where AI applications have considerable potential to drive positive changes (Obwegeser & Müller, 2018). However, the use of AI in these areas also faces ethical and regulatory challenges, including invasive surveillance, discrimination, and data misuse (Bostrom, 2014; Dafoe, 2018). This study will draw on literature on innovation and public procurement to address issues such as enhancing transparency and curbing corruption in public procurement processes. Key words: Public Procurement, Artificial Intelligence, Innovation, Transparency, Curbing Corruption, Albania.

Abstract: The process of Albania's accession to the European Union (EU) highlights a complex interplay between formal legal approximation and a deeper political and social transformation. The aim of this paper is to critically examine Albania's legal integration process, drawing on a theoretical perspective inspired by systems theory, and challenging the traditional approach to Europeanization that is often reduced to the label of a “science of obedience”. Thus, by reconceptualizing European integration for candidate countries, the analysis highlights how Albania's EU accession process has, in some cases, reduced domestic politics to the implementation of “homework” dictated by Brussels, at the expense of local vision and agency. By reviewing some key academic and policy sources, as well as some of the latest EU Progress Reports (2024; 2025), we explore the harmonization of Albania’s domestic legal order with the EU’s acquis communautaire, identifying significant administrative, political, and legal barriers, as well as assessing the ongoing gaps in this process. We conclude that a dynamic, context-sensitive approach to European integration – which incorporates domestic political agency and acknowledges societal conditions – is essential for Albania to move from formal compliance to more genuine.

Abstract: The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the contemporary world has changed the dynamics of how businesses are run in the digital age by bringing new opportunities and, at the same time, disrupting the established methods. This study is aimed at evaluating the perception of the students on whether the use of AI is transforming how businesses are conducted in the digital era. The questionnaire was used to collect data and consisted of 219 respondents in seven universities in Albania and Kosovo and was analyzed using linear regression. The results indicate that factors such as gender structure and concerns about privacy and security of personal data related to the use of AI do not have a statistically significant impact on business transformation. On the other hand, the use of AI is identified as a factor with a significant impact on creating new employment opportunities, while AI's role in deepening social and economic inequalities has a statistically significant effect on business transformation. Based on a new and original mentality, the research is a new and original interpretation of the dynamics of AI application in changing the business management processes.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine the role played by political parties in the penetration/maintenance of informal rules, norms, and networks within state structures, rendering the operation of the rule of law ineffective and undermining democratization processes. Here, we argue that the malfunction of the rule of law from persistent phenomena such as the dominance of informal institutions/rules, state capture, political clientelism, and patronage networks by political parties in Western Balkans countries has made their democratic institutions, or what Guillermo O’Donnell (1996) calls the “full institutional package” of polyarchy, to function with serious deficits. By conceiving the rule of law as a crucial dimension of the democratic system, and by maintaining that democratic rights and freedoms are effectively ensured only to the extent that state institutions/structures are bound by the rule of law, we here advance the argument that political parties have managed to exploit the structural weakness of the state in their environments to subjugate them for partisan gain and advantages. The cases from the Western Balkan countries considered in this study are Albania, Serbia, and North Macedonia. Keywords: Rule of Law, Democratization, State institutions, Informal rules/networks, Particularism, Clientelism, Patronage, Western Balkan countries.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between Income levels and voting patterns of the Albanian electorate. Specifically, it seeks to determine whether the monthly income group of individuals [measured in terms of their household income level] significantly influences 1. the Party they voted for in the 2021 parliamentary elections and 2. the Party they declare they feel closest to. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire administered to a sample of 1812 individuals. Fisher's exact test is used to analyze the relationship between the Monthly income group of the respondents' family [household unit] and the Party they voted for in the 2021 parliamentary elections, and the Party they declare they feel closest to. The results indicate a statistically significant dependency between these variables. Higher-income individuals demonstrated different voting patterns compared to those in lower-income groups, indicating the importance of economic status in electoral decisions. However, the strength of association between the categorical variables results in "negligible", using Cramer's V statistic. This finding contributes to the broader understanding of voting behavior in post-socialist societies like Albania, where economic transformations and disparities may influence the political alignment of the electorate. The study provides valuable insights for the Albanian political and economic context and linkage strategies between political parties and the voters in Albania. Kew words: p value, Cramer’s V statistic, Income level, Party choice, Questionnaire, Fisher’s exact test, control variable.

The procurement of goods and services by public institutions, commonly known as ‘public procurement,’ is an important element of the market economy (Naudé & Dimitri, 2021). In most OECD member countries, public procurement accounts for a significant percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with an average around 10-15% of GDP (OECD, 2015). In Albania’s case, based on official data from Albanian institutions such as the Ministry of Finance, INSTAT, as well as regular public procurement forecasts and the European Commission’s Progress Report, the public procurement market in Albania represented approximately 9.4% of GDP in 2022, compared to 10.7% in 2021 (EU Progress Report, 2023). Although public procurement accounts for only about 10% of GDP in Albania, it still represents a substantial part of public spending, necessitating its efficient use. Therefore, this study examines the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing transparency and efficiency in public procurement, analyzing AI’s potential to identify and prevent corruption and unethical practices. Public procurement, a key tool for innovation and meeting the needs of public administration, is an area where AI applications have considerable potential to drive positive changes (Obwegeser & Müller, 2018). However, the use of AI in these areas also faces ethical and regulatory challenges, including invasive surveillance, discrimination, and data misuse (Bostrom, 2014; Dafoe, 2018). This study will draw on literature on innovation and public procurement to address issues such as inequality and strict control in public processes, suggesting that AI can help balance efficiency and innovation to meet secondary policy goals, such as supporting SMEs and promoting sustainable public procurement. Kew words: Public Procurement, AI, innovation, research, development, Albania.

Abstract: This paper provides a literature overview on the role of cleavages in the transformative dynamics of political realignments of the electorate and for (re)shaping party systems. Drawing from the key theoretical perspectives – the bottom-up approach, the top-down perspective, and the one that emphasizes the importance of mezzo-structures - the analysis includes the dual influence of socio-economic shifts and the strategic mobilization efforts of political actors in shaping political divisions. By integrating historical, institutional, and socio-cultural contexts, the paper highlights the conditions in which cleavages can translate into structured political alignments. The main argument here is that the interaction of diverse factors and the context (historical, social, political-institutional, economic, cultural) where different societies are located is essential to explaining the type of divisions that might emerge and evolve within their electorate. The discussion offers an interdisciplinary synthesis that underlines the importance of contextual factors in understanding the emergence and salience of certain political divisions across diverse democratic settings. Keywords: Political cleavages, electorate realignment, the bottom-up perspective, top-down perspective, mezzo-structures, party systems, socio-political context.

The years that followed the fall of the Berlin wall and various authoritarian regimes in different regions of the world, witnessed the growth of a wide literature on democratization, which was influenced more and more by the paradigm of transition and the “consolidation” of democracy. Since then, evaluations as well as perspectives through which were seen various regimes (the new democracies “with problems”) are developed mainly through the theoretical lens of consolidation paradigm, according to which full democratic consolidation was the endpoint of regime transitions. But it has become clear today that in many countries, in which more than three decades have passed since the fall of authoritarian regimes, the issue of “completion” of democracy in their social and political context is still far from being a happy reality. The purpose of this paper is to criticize both in the theoretical and the empirical level, the concept of “consolidation of democracy”, seeing it as a non-valid concept for the study of democratization. This paper will argue that essentially the concept of consolidation is teleological and problematic in the sense that democracy is seen not as a process but an endpoint product.

During the three decades since Albania overthrew the communist dictatorial system and began its democratic changes, the existence of a line of thought in Albanian society has been noted, which tends to explain the behaviour of Albanian politicians during the transition period based on the assumption of a “communist mentality” carried by them. This line of thought has often been dominant and has been reflected in the Albanian media and public space as a form of “main” explanation to show many of the failures that Albanian democracy has faced during these 30 years, the authoritarian behaviour of political elites, the “state capture” by political parties, the crisis of state institutions, etc. Applying the concept of “communist mentality” in the Albanian media and public space and explaining through it (almost) any kind of negative phenomenon, problem, or behaviour that contradicts the idea of democracy or prevents it from developing, is very problematic, therefore it has served as an impetus in undertaking this study. In this paper, a critical approach will be offered to this discourse that has often dominated the Albanian media and public space, questioning whether is this “communist mentality” the determining factor for the behaviour of Albanian politicians and the failures of Albanian democracy or there are other factors that may explain these phenomena.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the clientelistic strategies and informal practices that the ruling political parties in Albania use during the elections to ensure an unfair advantage in their favour over the opposition challengers. One of the main characteristics of the political developments of the transition period in Albania since 1991 has been the flourishing of informal practices and clientelist networks of political parties within state structures, which has produced an extreme politicization of these institutions. These strategies that in general terms we label as “clientelistic” and that have been used to a large extent by the incumbent political parties have had a direct negative impact on the conduct of free and fair elections in Albania by distorting their main goal: to reflect the will of the people. This is because such clientelist strategies, together with the informal practices/mechanisms that accompany them, have influenced the creation of an unlevelled playing field, and have produced a hyperincumbency advantage in the electoral contests between political parties in Albania. The case of the recent elections held in Albania on 25 April 2021 will be the empirical case of this study, in which are evidenced the electoral containment strategies and practices that the ruling political party used to provide an unfair advantage in its favour and to secure its grip on power.

This paper aims to analyse the relationship that exists between state capture, party patronage, and the conduct of electoral processes in the settings of post-communist countries, of which Albania is one. A characteristic of the political developments of the transition period in many post-communist countries has been the phenomenon of state capture, which has occurred mainly through the endemic party patronage and politicization of state institutions. The phenomenon of state capture by the ruling political parties has had a negative conditional impact on the conduct of competitive, free and fair elections in these countries, leading to distrust regarding the credibility and integrity of the process. This study argues that phenomena such as state capture and extensive party patronage as informal practices/mechanisms in the hands of the ruling political parties affect the creation of a skewed playing field and the production of hyper-incumbency advantages in holding electoral contests between political parties, making the possibility of political power rotations difficult. Albania, in the case of its last parliamentary elections, held on 25th April 2021, constitutes the case study (Section IV) to which the theoretical framework of the paper is applied, by identifying the informal practices and methods through state capture that the ruling political party used to provide structural, institutional, and financial advantages in its favour regarding elections.

The main argument of this paper is that the legal regulation of lobbying is an important factor for disciplining/curbing the undue (illicit) influence of different interest groups on the political-making process, especially in countries with post-communist and nonconsolidated democracies such as Albania. In three decades of political and economic transition from a one-party communist system to a democratic one and towards a market economy, the democratization of Albania has faced various problems, which have often led to a loss of public confidence in the political class and apathy of citizens towards the political system. In many cases, this has come as a result of the perception or even the disclosure by the media and the public of corruption scandals, political clientelism, or undue influences in the decision-making processes in Albania. Surely, it can be said that political scandals of trading or exercising illicit influences on public officials can affect, as numerous cases have shown, every democratic political system in the world. However, they are more likely to occur in new democracies (post-communist) countries that face weak state structures and a legal environment that is not yet well consolidated and where a culture of informality exists alongside written rules and laws. For this purpose, that of disciplining and controlling the influences that specific interests exert on the decision-making process of governments, legislatures, or other regulatory agencies, a good part of European countries have considered undertaking legal regulatory initiatives for lobbying activity in their environments.

One of the main features that has characterized the Albanian political scene during these three decades of democratization, has been the problematic relationship that political parties have had with political ideologies as a linkage mechanism to mobilize their electorate and secure votes in elections. The relationship of Albanian political parties with certain political ideologies can be described as strained and problematic. This has happened because such ideologies have either remained too “tight” to the suit of action or policies that our parties undertook when they were in power, or because political ideologies have not served these parties as an effective instrument, or as a linkage mechanism, to attract votes from the Albanian electorate. In this sense, this paper argues that Albanian political parties have increasingly relied on nonideological instruments and strategies to guarantee what is the main goal of political parties in every country: securing votes in elections. The aim of this paper is to address the causes of the problem of de-ideologization of Albanian political parties, seeing this as a problem that relates to and reflects the social structure of Albanian society during the period of its democratization after the ‘90s.

The aim of this paper is to explore the connection between stateness (and its constituent attributes) and democracy by conceiving the effective state as an independent variable and a prerequisite for the success of a well-functioning democracy. Such a conditioning relationship between the state and the regime has often been subject to being neglected among many scholars of democratization, who have not considered the state as an important explanatory or at least obstructive variable for the success of democratization. This paper argues that the existence of an effective and legitimate state is essential to build a well-functioning democracy. Herein, the variable of stateness is analysed in terms of four attributes: that of monopoly on the legitimate use of force; citizenship agreement; infrastructure capacity of the state; and law enforcement capacity.

One of the most fascinating debates in the field of political theory has been the one about the relationship between value pluralism and liberalism. Based on their different conceptions and definitions, various theorists have often theorized a tension in the relationship between pluralism and liberalism. On the one hand, liberal authors who believe in the universality of liberal values that have to do with the safeguard of freedom (conceived at least to some extent as “negative freedom”), in the expressions and the free choices that individuals within a society or group can make, tolerance, in their individuality, in the equality of opportunities for everyone, etc., and on the other hand, the pluralists, who emphasize that different values, beliefs and human goods (the diversity) in society are essentially incompatible with one another, and as such, also incommensurable. Against the positions of some various authors who theorize an inherent conflict between these two ideas, in this paper, we argue that in practice, but also theoretically justified, there is a connection and a mutual support relationship existing between pluralism and liberalism. Therefore, the main principles that pluralism protects, such as pluralism of value, incommensurability between multiple conceptions of the goods, etc., can find themselves best in the context of a liberal society.