Most analyses on Greek politics and political parties begin with a typical reference to the 'restoration of democracy in July 1974'. Before that, a chaotic period was marked by intense and violent juxtaposition and conspiracy theories, along with modern social activism trends and movements infiltrating Greek society, which was exiting the poverty that followed the post-World War II Greek civil war.
The restoration of democracy in the mid-1970s has been a major point of reference for Greek politics embodying a unique characteristic - the power of defining all further developments in the political spectrum.
Being one of the most powerful stereotypes in the decades that followed, it marginalised right-wing politics and elevated all sorts of arguments of a left origin in the mainstream, with obvious repercussion on the Greek economic system; in brief: the creation of a public sector that played the role of an employment asylum; negative attitudes towards entrepreneurship and middle class values and accumulation of employment rights that kept piling up next to decreasing productivity ratios and increasing deficit figures.
More state meant more corruption and a large part of entrepreneurship depending on state contracts. Thus, for many years in Greece, affiliations with political parties have been a much more valuable and effective ‘production input’ than factories, capital, or innovative ideas. A few decades later, when other people’s money ended, the party was over.
Politicians have failed in Greece, not only in terms of morality, but also as regards the protection of their profession per se, which is necessary in order to keep a representative democracy in operation. An MP friend once told me: “On a trip to Spain, in talks I had with Spanish fellow MPs, one of the things they kept saying to me was that ‘OK, bribery is a common characteristic of political systems; here [in Spain] we have similar problems, but guess what? When the contractor delivers the road, it has to be perfectly made; if not, he will be penalised, whether he's our friend or not’.”
No matter how absurd it may sound, this is a major difference between two Mediterranean buddies. In our case, politicians have failed to protect their own citizens. In the p50 years, Greece had suffered 150,000 deaths in road accidents, with 1.5 million people were wounded. This may be a much better reason to summon votes for a parliamentary probe than the exact percentage of deficit that brought Troika in charge of the Greek economy.
Major failures are usually good starting points for something positive. Some appear optimistic that the country has entered a cleansing process, especially under Prime Minister Lucas Papademos who, so far has managed to avoid the political nonsense of his predecessors.
The 'Restoration of Greece' is the new chapter in national history that hopefully will begin with less partisanship and unintelligible political speech and more tangible results at all levels, providing that we manage to keep traditional Greek politics as far away as possible.
Dr. Demetris Kamaras is the editor of dailyGreece.net.
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