Historical Overview on Decentralization and local Government of Albania

Even before the announcement of Autonomy of Albania from the Ottoman Empire, Albanians attempted institutional organization. The Albanian Pashaliks marked the beginning of a new period. Provisional Government of Ymer Prizreni was established institutionally and is considered the first step of decentralized nature of the governance Albanian lands. With the "Liberation of Skopje" in the beginning of August 1912, the Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary Leopold Berthtold, on August 13, 1912, proposed to the Great Powers a project for the gradual decentralization policy of the Ottoman Empire. Newspapers of the time considered the trend of administrative decentralization as a stepladder of political decentralization. The Government of Ismail Qemali made an administrative territorial reorganization in August 1913. On November 23, 1913, "The Canon of Civil Administration of Albania" was established. Organic Statute of Albania, with Articles 95-97, shared Albania on 7 Sanjaks with kazas and provinces just as in the Ottoman Empire. In 1992 Albania had 12 prefectures, 36 districts and 357 communes and municipalities. Today, with the changes following the new territorial reform, Albania has only 61 municipalities and 12 counties and no commune. Actually, local government is not administered by municipalities, communes and counties but only by municipalities. This has caused the need for these changes in authorities and competences to be reflected in the Constitution as well, through appropriate amendments.