ABSTRACT
If a political system has been in collapse, it has to find mechanisms or tools to cope with these changes by itself. Among others, such tools include social policy institutions. In Albania, during the post-communist transitional period of 1991-1998, social policy aimed to change the system as a reaction to changes in both the external and internal environments. In the conditions in which Albania came out of its closed shell and abolished the principle of total self-reliance, the mutual influences on an open system have to be considered. These were the influences from the world system, since the main social policy institutions, such as social security systems, employment services, labour code, minimum wage, etc., have taken a global character in our time. These came to Albania through the various projects of international organisations, such as the World Bank, European Community, ILO, UNDP, International Monetary Fund.
