The Principle of Sovereignty as the Main Principle of Democracy, between the Political Pluralism and the Electoral System in the Parlamentary Republic of Albania

Abstract

Popular sovereignty is the foundation of the principle of democracy for the existence and functioning of the rule of law. In the Parliamentary Republic of Albania based on political pluralism for nearly three decades, this essential element of the democratic principle seems to be as fragile as the principle itself. The basic concept of the functionality of the rule of law in Albania under the Constitution is the separation and balancing of powers. Although the constitutional provision for the separation and balancing of powers is clear and based on Montesquieu’s conception of the development of the principle of democracy and the prohibition of abuse that each of the powers could inflict on each other, the separation and balancing of powers in Albania seems to be impossible. Albania as a country with a culture of not very long political pluralism, instead it comes from a rather long-term mono-party system where the development of the electoral process was more of a holiday than a race. However, the sovereignty of the people enshrined in today's constitution and yesterday's constitution seems more like a slogan than a fundamental principle of constitutional order. In these years of political pluralism between the test of many electoral systems coupled with constitutional and legal changes, the implementation of the principle of popular sovereignty to consolidate the democratic principle remains clearly a utopia for Albanian society. After each election process debates reopen the need for reforming the electoral system in general and managing the process in particular. The purpose of this paper through a comparative analysis is to identify the elements that impede the observance of the fundamental constitutional principle of popular sovereignty either directly or indirectly through elected representatives to consolidate the rule oflaw in Albania.