didates, previously prepared by the Party district or city
committee, is read; the qualifications of each candidate are described;
and the list is unanimously approved. Since the first national and local
elections held in 1945 in which the list of candidates included
non-Party people, lists have been restricted to Party members only.
Veterans of Hoxha's partisan forces of the so-called War of National
Liberation still predominate among candidates for office.

A similar situation prevails with regard to the appointment of
government officials. After each national election, the People's
Assembly has appointed a new government. The procedure for this
appointment has never varied: at the first meeting of the new People's
Assembly the Party First Secretary has submitted for approval the list
of the new ministers, which invariably has received unanimous approval.
Because of purges in the top echelons of the Party, especially in the
late 1940s and early 1950s, the government list has undergone several
changes. Since the elimination of the pro-Yugoslav faction in 1948,
however, these changes have affected mostly the technical and economic
ministries. The three key posts in the government, however--namely,
those of prime minister, minister of the interior, and minister of
defense--have been consistently held by Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu or
their trusted lieutenants.

The appointment of all government officials as well as the managers of
the state economic enterprises rested formally with the agencies
involved, but no official has been appointed without the prior approval
of the appropriate Party organization. In reality, all key positions are
held by Party cadres who have been selected and appointed by the Party
district or city committees. The Party statute empowers the basic Party
organizations in all governmental organs and economic enterprises to
check and guide the activities of all officials and to see that they are
properly oriented in the political and ideological fields. The prime
requisite in filling these positions is Party loyalty.

Party Schools

In 1970 the Party operated a number of schools and courses for its
cadres as well as three research and study institutes, attached to the
Central Committee. The highest school was the V.I. Lenin Institute,
headed by Fiqrete Shehu, wife of the prime minister. It was attended by
the higher and more promising Party members.

The three Party institutes were the Instit