INTRODUCTION but, keeping his hold upon the helm, it came away with Palinurus. Neptune was mindful of his promise, kept the ship on track with neither helm nor pilot, till Æneas, mourning the loss of his faithful steersman, took charge of the ship him­self.” 77 Introduction This paper examines governance issues through the prism of social policy and from a country perspective, that of Albania, with the aim of contributing to national and international debates on these topics. It is based on some of the results of recent research into the founding and development of social policy in Albania during transition. This was focused on the roles of institutions and state and non­state actors(international and domestic NGO’s) in forming anti-poverty policies. It is based on empirical research with over 100 participants, consisting of in­depth interviews and focus groups conducted in the period 2002-05. Additional ethnographic research was also undertaken and data generated employing partici­pant and non-participant observation, area visits and media monitoring. Secondary research on welfare, global social policy and governance across transition and de­veloped countries provided the theoretical framework. Without wanting to make wild claims for research based on this sample size and set, I hold up my remarks on the basis of moderatum generalisations(Wil­liams, 2003). In other words they represent aspects of a particular situation, which may be seen as instances of a broader set of recognised phenomena, with appropri­ate qualification. The reader will find the familiar format of context setting, presen­tation of research findings and concluding remarks. The paper is broadly composed of three sections. The first is a brief essay into the academic and scholarly background of governance and social policy. The next part presents the specific Albanian context through findings from the research. Finally, there are some concluding remarks. CONCEPTUAL BACKDROP Contemporary thinking finds a linear relationship between governance and economic growth(Lindbeck, 2001, Kaufmann et al, 2002). Hence, aside from its intrinsic importance, better systems of governance are considered crucial to sus­tained development across the world 78 . Perhaps even more than growth, however, translating good governance to post-communist contexts has proven fraught with 77 Palinurus, helmsman of the ship on which Æneas and his people fled to after the fall of Troy, had his life traded among the gods for the safe passage of all. Palinurus himself was washed ashore and killed by a local tribe for his clothes, his bones left unburied. Æneas visited him in the Underworld where he promised to give Palinurus proper burial. 78 Although even if we grant a positive link between institutional strength and economic growth, and that this may factor to the benefit of the poor, there are costs to this development in terms of diverted resources, and‘a long lag­time until results feedback positively into poverty issues’(Morduch, 1999) 205