Külpolitika - A Magyar Külügyi Intézet elméleti-politikai folyóirata - 1990 (17. évfolyam)
1990 / 2. szám - H. Fekete Attila: A második világháború utáni Albánia
of an election and cadre-rotation system imitating democracy, the exclusion of ideology from a part of the mass communication and of the cultural life, the attention payed to the intelligentsia and to the youth in order to make them committed to the system — secure for the time beeing the social calmness. The latest changes in Eastern-Europe and the effort to eliminate their possible effect on Albania force the Albanian leadership to continue the initial „reform-steps”. On the latest Central Committee meetings of the Albanian Party of Labour (in January and in April 1990.) pledges were made to strengthen constitutionality, to relax rigid control of the economy based on central planning, and the question of enlarging human rights (freedom of worship, tourism) had been raised even earlier. It seems that the leadership — interpreting the international situation through the former ideological logic but still sticking to it in a more and more pragmatic way, relying unaltered on nationalism and meeting in a greater measure the demands of the population — still has the necessary reserves to maintain the essential elements of the Albanian system and to controll completely the inner processes. The draft handed in on the history of post-war Albania in November 1989 helps to understand the development of today’s situation of the country. Nóra Kollár: Perestroika: efforts to carry out political reforms (changes in the Soviet political system) The author in the third part of her series of three articles analyses the changes in the Soviet political system as a conseguence of perestroika taking into account two factors: the results, and possible perspectives. The starting-point of the analysis is: everything, what in the Soviet Union has happened since 1985, is directed at the change of the Soviet system as a whole, in spite of some ideological interpretations. The progress is not quite smooth, forced compromises slow down and bloch it from time to time, half measures and retreats occur as well. In the reform of political system we can see a definite progress, which is not the case in the economy and the nationality problem. According to the author, there have been two periods in the political reform: the first, which was a preparatory one was completed by the national party conference in May 1988, the second period terminated in February 1990 at the plenary meeting of the CPU, though the Soviet leadership does not consider this plenary meeting, which has accepted multi-party system, as a beginning of a new period. Results and consequences of the political reforms reflect the internal evolution of perestroika in a remarhable way. With the activity of different political forces — the author is among the first writers in Hungary who analyse this development — the political picture has become more complex. Between 1985 and 1988 political developments — took place mainly in the communist party, with cantions steps by reformers and attempts by conservatives to block any progress. Former results of political reforms seem insiguificant compared to the accelerated changes 1989 and 1990 which touched upon the very essence of political power (power sharing) but without them such political forces (peoples front, political groups, parties, semi-parties) and institutions (congress of people’s deputies, presidental system, multi-party system) which in spite of their contradictions have played a concial role in the progress of the Soviet Union toward the 21st century with, or without Gorbachev could not have been established. With a wiew to turn the Soviet Union to a modernized and democratized country two concial areas should be identified: first the parties; second, the effective system of institutions of state power and the underlying question of power sharing and proper division of functions. The essential and positive changes in the political system are threatened by two basic factors: VI
