Karoulas, G. (2015) “Syriza’s victory underlines the transformation of Greek political culture during the crisis, LSE EUROPP, 27 January.
On 25 January, Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, won the 2015 Greek parliamentary elections and formed a new coalition government with another anti-austerity party, the Independent Greeks. Gerasimos Karoulas writes on the changes within Greek political culture which have occurred in Greece during the country’s economic crisis and which were underlined by Syriza’s victory. He argues that there has been a significant transformation in the nature of Greek political elites which will continue after the 2015 elections.
In May 2010 the Pasok government in Greece signed the first Memorandum of Understanding. The austerity policies that followed have fed into a deep crisis, not only on a socioeconomic level, but also at the level of politics. Greek political elites have undergone a significant transformation which has entailed, among other features, an emerging democratic deficit, the changing of recruitment networks of MPs, a high turnover rate of political figures, and a reduction in the kind of nepotism which had previously characterised some aspects of Greek politics. This evolution can to a large extent be evaluated and interpreted using academic approaches to the study of political elites.
Many of the concepts from this literature have been apparent in the Greek case. These include the notion of ‘homogenisation’, whereby once competing political elites negotiate a consensus in order to help retain their status. The insights of the German sociologist Robert Michels have also appeared relevant to Greece, which has witnessed the strengthening of elite level decision-making at the expense of other decision-making processes, such as those centred around party organisations, MPs in parliament, or the views of voters.
Relevant posts:
- Afonso, A., Zartaloudis, S. & Papadopoulos, Y. (2014) “How party linkages shape austerity politics: clientelism and fiscal adjustment in Greece and Portugal during the eurozone crisis“, Journal of European Public Policy, 29 October.
- Afonso, A., Zartaloudis, S. & Papadopoulos, Y. (2014) “Lower levels of clientelism in Portuguese politics explain why Portugal handled austerity better than Greece during the crisis“, LSE EUROPP, 27 October.
- Zikos, A. (2013) “Party Euroscepticism in Greece during the Financial Crisis, the Cases of SYRIZA and Chrysi Avgi”, National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, June.