By Ben Andoni
This expression belongs to Emma Goldman, a Lithuanian-born woman of Jewish origin who had a profound influence on political movements at the end of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century. As part of anarchist thought, her famous sentence — “If voting changed anything, they would make it illegal” — fueled her critiques and opinions, especially those shaped by her references to the vast state she came from, the USSR.
For a long time, this aphorism seemed forgotten. In the early 1990s and in the two decades that followed, there was a kind of idealism surrounding the vote in socialist Eastern Europe. The phrase was archived away, as it appeared to belong more to anarchist rhetoric than to the new democratic optimism of the era. There came a time when faith was placed in Abraham Lincoln’s American concept that the ballot is stronger than the bullet — until today, when political developments, especially in Europe, are showing that voting is increasingly closed off, even predictable, with outcomes often known before the process even begins. Leaders no longer change in the former socialist East.
This is now the Albanian dilemma. The majority of Edi Rama has been haunted by the exposure of corruption cases, with names from his ranks regularly parading before the justice system. Starting with the cases of former deputy prime ministers Balluku and Ahmetaj, and continuing with ministers, heads of key agencies, and various figures within their structures, all of this has driven socialist governance to its lowest point of political morality — to the brink of a final rupture with the Albanian voter.
In this context, a sense of urgency has emerged within the opposition for change, accompanied by the feeling that power is within arm’s reach. Yet what we have seen in recent hours is a rush of different voices, as if power were already at the door, with actors tripping over one another instead of cooperating and establishing fair rules for the future.
Change is difficult, and the Bulgarian case offers a paradox that can serve as a lesson — not because the country is locked in a permanent crisis with endless elections, but because it resembles Albania in many ways. The only real difference is this: while Boiko Borisov’s GERB party is part of the European People’s Party, Albania’s Socialist Party belongs to the Socialist International. Otherwise, the similarities in how they operate are almost frightening: strong centralized power, visible control over the administration, networks of nepotism and influence penetrating every cell of public life. Wiretaps reveal how tenders are awarded and how clientelism functions. Corruption, now accompanying every step of daily life, has become suffocating.
Yet facing the disgraced Albanian Socialists and the disheveled Bulgarian GERB stand alternatives with no real strength — fragmented and, above all, disorganized. Albania’s Democratic Party listens to everything its small allies say (all of them diminished, partly due to their own flirtations with the Socialists), but in the end, it makes the key deals on major reforms — especially electoral reform — with the Socialists themselves. And the result is the one every Albanian sees but does not wish to accept: the Socialists are perceived as the only ones capable of running the state.
So what is missing from this reality? Several analyses point clearly to the absence of a “true democratic citizen,” deeply rooted within the broader population in parts of the region, where a strong collectivist spirit and hierarchical traditions facilitate clientelist relationships and oligarchic influence. The appeal, therefore, is for precisely that citizen to awaken — one who knows how to vote not merely for personal interest, but for the country as a whole, even though the Albanian case has often shown that our vote is squandered. Worse still, we have lost the sense that our vote might actually shake power.
Emma Goldman was right.