WI: The Hoxha regime never fell

I highly doubt that Hoxha's regime could have survived much longer than it did. Unlike North Korea, Albania didn't have a friendly state backing it up and keeping the money flowing/lights on. Historically the Albanian economy has always been structure around some foreign source of capital to help bridge the massive gap in between their income and expenditure. From 1925-43 it was Italy, Germany briefly stepped in for 1944, then from 1945 - 48 it was Yugoslavia serving as Albania's primary benefactor. Following the Stalin/Tito split Hoxha sided with Stalin and the USSR paid Albania's bills from 1948-1961 before China took over as Albania's main sponsor until the late 70's. From the late 70's to the collapse of the regime Albania was on its own financially and had racked up a truly tremendous debt for such a small country. Economically it just wasn't a sustainable system.

Furthermore, Hoxha had purged the party so thoroughly by the time he died that there wasn't the intellectual force necessary to come up with the solutions the country needed to transition into the 1990s.

The only thing that was keeping the Albanian Communist party alive in the late '80s/early '90s was the fact that the Communists for all intents and purposes built modern Albania. (This can be seen event today as the Albanians still haven't come to terms with their past and have left the communist section of their national museum closed off/permanently under construction.)
 
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