578 SEER, 84, 3, JULY 2006 source book for Central European specialists.It also representsan important contribution for policy communities in Central Europe and in those states seeking to devise strategiesto supportpolitical development in the region. Department of Government SARAH BIRCH University ofEssex Barjaba,Kosta (ed.).Albania's Democratic Elections, I99I-I997: Analyses, Documents andData. Founding Elections in Eastern Europe. Sigma, Berlin, 2004. 28I pp. Maps. Tables. Notes. Appendices. E2I.90 (paperback). Skaric, Svetomir. DemocraticElectionsin Macedonia,I990-2002: Analyses, Documents andData. With a contribution by Hossein Shahla. Founding Electionsin EasternEurope. Sigma, Berlin, 2005. 326 pp. Notes. Tables. Appendices. ?22.90 (paperback). THE Sigma series on Founding Elections in EasternEurope, edited by HansDieter Klingemann and Charles Lewis Taylor, was establishedin I995 and now includes over a dozen volumes on countries ranging from Russia to Slovenia. Written almost exclusivelyby prominentpolitical scientistsfrom the countriesunder consideration,this seriesprovidesan insider'sview of electoral processes in the post-Communist area. Each book includes analyses of the historicalcontext of the statein question, discussionof the electorallegislation governing the contests studied, an overview of the candidates and political parties competing in these elections, election results, analysis of the determinants of electoral behaviour, and an account of government formation following the elections. One of the most usefulcontributionsmade by this seriesis the provisionof data and documents (asimplied by the common subtitleof all the volumes in the series). This includes English-languagetranslationsof relevant electoral laws, data on the political party system in the country in question, official electoral results, and information on social science survey data available for that country. Much of this materialis difficultto locate in English translation (or indeed in any language), and these books therefore serve an extremely importantscholarlyfunction by making availableto an Anglophone audience a range of originalsource material in a standardizedformat. The studies in this series are relevant to the concerns of a wide array of audiences, from students of post-Communist politics to comparativistsand practitionersin the sphere of electoral assistance.Albania's Democratic Elections, I99I-I997, edited by Kosta Barjaba,and Democratic Elections inMacedonia, I9902002 , by Svetomir Skaric,are no exception. Of the two, the Akaricvolume on Macedonia is the stronger (for reasons outlined below), but both texts make an important contribution to documenting party system development and elections in the post-Communistworld. Since competitive elections were introduced in Albania in the early I990s, they have had to compete with other informalmeans of allocatingpower, and the electoralexperience in the Balkancountryhas not been withoutproblems. REVIEWS 579 The elections of I996 in particular were fraught with allegations of malfeasance,though the conduct of elections appearsto have improvedsomewhat in more recent contests. Post-Communist electoral history in Albania representsa fascinating case of how elections can be used by politicians for ends other than those of democratic representationyet can over time have a stabilizing effect on a country. One of the most significant achievements of Albania's Democratic Elections, I99I-I997 is to bring this narrativeinto relief. Unfortunately,the volatile politicalsituationin the country,combined with widespread poverty and economic turbulence, has had significantknock-on effects for scholarship, and in particular for the sensitive field of political science. The consequences of these political and economic strains are felt throughout this volume, which is of highly variable quality. The English in several of the chapters is very poor, in addition to which several chapters are tendentious, using emotive and normatively loaded language. Many of the contributions contain bald assertionsunsupported by evidence, and the statisticaltechniques used in the empirical chapters are somewhat primitive. It is also unclear why a book published in 2004 should have included only electionsthattookplaceup to 1997. Followinga directoryof Albanianpoliticalparties,there are eleven chapters (unnumbered)by different authors. The order of the chapters is somewhat haphazard;moreover,there is substantialthematicoverlapbetween severalespecially between the chapter by Fatos Lubonja on 'The Introduction of PoliticalPluralismin Albania:Contradictionsand Paradoxes'and 'The Evolution of the Albanian Constitution'by Luan Omari. The Lubonjachapter and 'Governmentsand Governing After the Introductionof PoliticalPluralismin Albania(I99I-99)' byUkeZenelBucpapaj standoutasparticularly intelligent, well-writtenand of high scholarlyquality(despiteratheridiosyncraticEnglish in the latter). Several of the other contributionsleave much to be desired. A chapter by Naim Zoto purportedlyon 'ElectoralBehavior of Albanian Voters' contains virtually nothing on electoral behaviour as traditionally understood, but is rather...