Leadership election between crisis and innovation in Greek party politics
Rori, L
Date: 2012
Conference paper
Publisher
4th International Graduate Student Conference
Abstract
Among political institutions, there is no doubt that political parties have dominated the political and
social life during the 3rd Greek Republic. Even though many scholars have argued that parties
constitute strong organizations that have invaded the state and the society, we believe that, in
terms of organization, they constitute ...
Among political institutions, there is no doubt that political parties have dominated the political and
social life during the 3rd Greek Republic. Even though many scholars have argued that parties
constitute strong organizations that have invaded the state and the society, we believe that, in
terms of organization, they constitute weak structures ruled by strong leaders. We will argue that
leadership elections constitute sensitive moments generating crises in the two major political
parties, PASOK and New Democracy, which are even more intense once leadership election
denotes a moment of innovation. Our main hypothesis is that when leadership election is marked
by an innovative process, which has been extraordinarily introduced, it makes allowances for
maneuver, rendering the crisis inevitable. This is certainly related to the low level of
institutionalization and the predominance of the leaders or certain party actors vis-à-vis the party
structures. In that case, the intra-party debate focuses mainly on the rules that should be followed
and less on the candidates’ programs. That said, the context and the intra-party power correlations
play a crucial role in the rules that prevail. The constant change in the rules of the game causes
new crises, which the party hardly overcomes once the new leader imposes his authority on the
organization. Because the political actor is always stronger than the institution, the old and new
structures are weak, which re-generates the crisis.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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