Journal of Economics and Development Studies

Institutions, Economic Development and Social Capital in Albania
DR. Marsida Ashiku

Abstract
Economic theory has proposed and discussed a lot of possible factors or explanations that promote or foster economic development. One of these gathers specific discussions from other Social Sciences, incorporating social, cultural, religious, institutional and political dimensions – and among them, the idea of 'social capital'. Although the discussion held by Putnam on the benefits of association, civic involvement and interpersonal trust is extremely rich, this paper incorporates data from the World Values Survey and our personal survey, since they extend the scope of analysis, making what is called 'synergic vision' of social capital. Social researches in the field of social capital have discovered many relations of the new components with economic progress at local, regional and international levels, with active citizens’ social and political participation, with the fight against corruption and with the performance of institutions. This paper aims to explain the economic behavior in Albania, considering the importance of the attributes directly related to social capital (interpersonal trust, which leads to the association and civic involvement, the governance i.e the formal attributes related to the action of the state, which establishes social, political and economic behavior).

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