Politics of Elite Transformation

Kkarakatsanis analyzes the processes through which a stable, consolidated, and fully democratic regime was brought into existence in the 1970s and early 1980s in Greece. Focusing primarily on the roles played by political elites during and in the decade after the transition to democracy, she analyzes how Greece moved from a long history of political instability and elite disunity to a consolidated democratic regime to which all major political actors were loyal and committed.

Four distinct transformations which forged the consensual unity required to establish a stable and consolidated democratic regime in Greece are rigorously and systematically examined: First, the modernization of the right from a questionable commitment to democracy before the 1967 dictatorship to a fully democratic stance in the post- 1974 period; second, the moderation of the communist left, which went from engaging in anti-democratic oppositional tactics for much of its history to loyalty towards the new democratic regime; third, the moderation of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement which went from a seemingly semi-loyal stance in the formative years of the transition to one of full loyalty once in the government; and fourth, the transformation of the military's attitudes and behavior, which led it to retreat from political involvement and to submit itself to civilian control. Recognizing that elites do not act within a political vacuum, however, she also analyzes elite interaction while paying careful attention to the relevant social, cultural, and international contexts, and to the linkages between elites and their respective social and political groups. Of particular interest to scholars and other researchers involved with contemporary politics in Southern Europe as well as democratic consolidation, elites, and political parties.