Twice in seven years Albania has faced the abyss. Twice it has managed to pull back. Its first recovery owed much to bold and sensible policies and astonished the onlookers. In the new environment entailed by ‘transition’, a number of adjustments have to be made, as the 1997 events made clear. Governing has largely to proceed by consent. Bandits must be off the roads. Producers and traders must be given every opportunity to escape from protection rackets and every incentive to expose them. The police must be incorruptible and reasonably competent, and a sufficient number of them trained in non-violent crowd control. Modem methods of tracking stolen property might be explored. Rules and conventions governing the state-owned media, the law courts, the electoral commission, the role of the head of state, and the universities, may have parts to play.