The path of modernization: PASOK and European integration
In 1974, the year in which PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) was founded, Greece faced one of those ‘critical situations’, described by Emile Durkheim, during which exceptional events strengthen collective identities and consolidate the feeling of belonging to a community. The fall of the dictatorship, the humiliation of Greece in Cyprus, and the referendum which brought about the end of the monarchy were the major events in 1974. These events mobilized large segments of the population, signicantly increased interest in politics, raised the credibility of political parties, and legitimized expectations of innovative political reforms. Everything appeared possible in 1974. Throughout the 1970s and culminating in 1981, the year of the great electoral triumph of the Greek socialists (48.07 per cent in contrast to 25.33 per cent in 1977 and only 13.58 per cent in 1974), PASOK had been imposed as a force which—more than any other party of the Left or the Right—represented the widespread conviction that extraordinary political engineering was on the agenda. In the 1970s and the early 1980s, PASOK proved to be extremely successful in combining anti-capitalist discourse with the historically articulated symbols of the political Centre. Andreas Papandreou, the leader and founder of PASOK, personied this combination in an exemplary fashion, unifying his centrist origin with Marxist analysis. Indeed, the strategic position occupied by the Greek socialists in the system of party competition was unique and remarkable. In the rst period (1974–1981), PASOK succeeded in functioning as the main vehicle of political protest within the party system, touching at times, in its rhetoric, the limits of an anti-systemic party. It succeeded at the same time in gradually dominating the electoral space of the historic Centre and establishing itself, particularly after the elections of 1977, as a party à vocation majoritaire. During this period, PASOK was—simultaneously!—a continuation of the historical Centre and a force more innovative and dynamic than the communist Left. The strategy of PASOK in the period 1974–1985 could be compared to that of François Mitterrand in the period 1973–1984. Both strategies should be taught in the textbooks of political science as two different paradigms which
Party Politics and Campaign Strategies: Policy Making and Organizational Changes of the Greek Socialist Party During the 2004 Electoral Campaign
ABSTRACT Party change as an issue of party politics has been approached as deriving from internal and/or external stimuli; to date, however, no research has been conducted regarding the party reforms taking place during an electoral campaign. This article examines the extent to which electoral campaigns can function as external stimuli on party change processes. The hypothesis presented is that the new Greek socialist leader George Papandreou, elected in February 2004 after the resignation of Costas Simitis, utilized the March 2004 legislative elections as a means by which to transform the party, aiming to implement two simultaneous goals: electoral victory and a change in the party's policy propositions and organizational structure. The article explores (1) how the leadership took advantage of the campaign in order to initiate this transformation, (2) how these two major goals—electoral victory and party change—were coordinated during the electoral period and what the leader's role was in such operations, and (3) how the party apparatus reacted to the initiative taken by the leadership.
Coronial Practice, Indigeneity and Suicide
All available data suggest that, like many other Indigenous peoples, Australian Aborigines are significantly more likely to kill themselves than are non-Aboriginal Australians. This statistical disparity is normally positioned an objective, ontological and undeniable social fact, a fact best explained as a function of endemic community disadvantage and disenfranchisement. This research explores the possibility that higher-than-normal Aboriginal suicide rates may also be a function of coronial decision-making practices. Based upon in-depth interviews with 32 coroners from across Australia, the following conclusions emerged from the data. First, coroners have differing perceptions of Indigenous capacity, and are less likely to have concerns about intent when the suicide is committed by an Indigenous person. Second, coroners have identified divergent scripts of Indigenous suicide, particularly its spontaneity and public location, and this supports rather than challenges, a finding of suicide. Third, the coronial perception of Indigenous life is a factor which influences a suicide determination for Indigenous deaths. Finally, the low level of Indigenous engagement with the coronial system, and the unlikelihood of a challenge to the finding of suicide by Indigenous families, means that a coronial determination of suicide is more likely.