POLITICAL ELITES AND POLITICAL PARTIES IN GREECE: RECRUITMENT CHANNELS AND ELITE REPRODUCTION IN THE PERIOD 1989-2011

Gerasimos Karoulas, Phd Candidate, University of Athens ECPR Conference, September 2014

Elites, recruitment and reproduction process

Definition of political elites: Two basic criteria are taken into consideration. The possession of an official political status in central level and the power of direct influence of decision making process.

Political elites’ recruitment process is depended on the changes taking place within society, in order to retain their own status and reproduce themselves. Under this precondition we expect new reproduction channels to emerge.

Party leaders and political elites have gained more power and influence in the last decades due to a number of factors (i.e. role of media, limited participation of civilians, marginalization of party organs).

Elites, recruitment and reproduction process

The connection of political elites, to the rest of elites that exist (i.e. economic, bureaucratic) has a major impact in the recruitment process.

During periods of political stability a limited number of changes in the composition of political elites is taking place while, on the contrary during periods of crisis and rapid social changes, the level of political elites’ replacement is very high.

Greek Political Elites: the historical context

The restoration of Greek Republic (third Greek democracy) took place in 1974 after the collapse of the coup d’ etat of the colonels in 1967.

New political powers emerged to the Greek political system as a “prerequisite” of the historical discontinuity with the past.

Political elites were renewed to a major extent, although the most powerful political elites still were political families and influential politicians of the previous period .

PASOK (Hellenic Socialist Movement) and ND (New Democracy) were the two parties that won the elections from 1974 till 2011. Only the two small left parties KKE (Greek Communist Party) and SYRIZA (Coalition of Radical Left), have managed to survive throughout the whole period.

Research outline

Census – quantity research during the period 1989-2011. The specific period is chosen due to the fact that is defined by two crises. The political crisis of 1989 and the initially socioeconomic and then political crisis of 2010.

Research Population: total number of Greek and European (Greek representatives) parliament members as long as members of the government (1.080 cases).

Data collection: analysis of curricula vitae and composition of political elites collected from current bibliography, newspapers, official websites (i.e. Greek and European parliament, political parties, personal pages of political elites)

Conduction of research: Coding Protocol tested in 12% of the sample. The data analysis was conducted through SPSS 20

Research Question – Research Hypotheses

How has been changed the recruitment and reproduction process of the Greek political elites of the period 1989–2011, under the latest changes in the Greek society as long as the Greek political system?

1.The changes within the Greek society are expected to enhance the creation of new reproduction channels, while traditional recruitment channels (i.e.parties) is expected to have a more marginalized role.

2.Party leaders and influential political elites is expected to have more power to control the recruitment process and the emerging of new political personnel.

3. The turnover of political elites is expected to be low due to the stability of the political system.

4.The connection between political elites and the other elites of the society is expected to be evident to the composition of political elites

Main Recruitment Channel per period

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

until 1990 between 1991 and 2000

between 2001 and 2011

Total

47,8% 47,9% 33,8%

43,8%

13,5% 18,2%

19,3%

16,5%

7,8% 6,8%

7,4% 7,4%

4,8% 6,2%

14,9% 8,1%

9,8% 13,0% 14,5% 12,1%

5,3%

6,5% 7,4% 6,2% 2,3%

2,4% 1,9% 8,7% 4,0% Resistance action

Other

Professional Recognition

Interest Groups

Media

State Organizations and Institutions Local Administration

Party Organs

Main Recruitment Channel per party

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

47,2% 44,3% 50,0% 42,0% 42,3%

21,2%

43,8%

18,8% 15,5%

11,5%

10,0% 19,2%

15,4%

16,5%

10,0% 5,7%

3,8%

7,4%

6,0%

8,5% 11,5%

8,0%

15,4%

19,2%

8,1%

9,4% 12,6% 11,5%

28,0%

19,2%

17,3%

12,1%

3,4% 9,3% 2,0%

5,8%

6,2% 2,6% 3,8%

5,8%

4,1% 1,5% 15,4% 10,0% 11,5%

4,0% Resistance action

Other

Professional Recognition Interest Groups

Media

State Organizations and Institutions Local Administration

Party Organs

Secondary Recruitment Channel per period

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

until 1990 between 1991 and 2000

between 2001 and 2011

Total

30,3% 26,6% 30,1% 29,1%

18,4% 23,7% 26,3% 22,4%

12,4% 13,6% 11,8%

12,6% 3,4%

6,8% 5,4%

5,0% 14,1%

17,5% 19,9%

16,9% 3,0%

6,2% 4,8%

4,5%

1,6%

17,9% 5,6% 8,7% Resistance action

Other

Professional Recognition

Interest Groups

Media

State Organizations and Institutions Local Administration

Party Organs

Party organ of Emerging

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Until 1990 Between 1991 and

2000

Between 2001 and

2011

Total

30,4% 24,2% 21,1% 26,2%

27,2%

20,4%

8,6%

20,5%

5,4%

4,3%

6,6%

5,4%

8,0%

15,6%

11,2%

11,1%

3,6% 3,8%

9,9%

5,2%

4,3% 2,7%

1,3%

3,1%

4,0% 4,3%

11,2%

5,9%

9,8% 11,8% 19,1%

12,7%

6,2% 9,7% 9,2% 8,0% Party leader or Minister consultant and party organ

Party leader or Minister consultant

C.C. and P.Y.

C.C. and E.B.

D.C. and P.Y.

D.C. and C.C.

Party Youth

Central Committee

District Committee

Duration of consultants in political elites status

0,0%

5,0%

10,0%

15,0%

20,0%

25,0%

30,0%

35,0%

1 to 4 years 5 to 8 years 9 to 12 years 13 to 16 years 17 to 20 years more than 20 years

34,2%

26,0%

14,5%

10,5%

6,5% 8,3%

33,1% 32,3%

12,6%

5,5% 6,3%

10,2%

Other personnel

Consultants

Consultants per influential status

0,0%

10,0%

20,0%

30,0%

40,0%

50,0%

60,0%

70,0%

Government member Parliament Member European parliament member

31,0%

64,5%

4,5%

53,5%

36,2%

10,2%

Other personnel

Consultants

Political Tradition per period

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

until 1990 between 1991 and 2000

between 2001 and 2011

Total

18,1% 8,7% 13,7% 14,3%

81,9% 91,3% 86,3% 85,7%

No

Yes

Duration of political tradition members in political elite status

0,0%

5,0%

10,0%

15,0%

20,0%

25,0%

30,0%

35,0%

40,0%

1 to 4 years 5 to 8 years 9 to 12 years 13 to 16 years

17 to 20 years

more than 20 years

24,7%

17,5%

13,0% 12,3% 11,7%

20,8%

35,4%

28,4%

14,5%

9,5%

5,6% 6,5%

Yes

No

Political Tradition per party

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

11,1% 19,5%

0,0% 6,0% 7,7% 22,8%

14,3%

88,9% 80,5%

100,0% 94,0% 92,3% 77,2%

85,7%

No

Yes

Political tradition members per influential status

0,0%

10,0%

20,0%

30,0%

40,0%

50,0%

60,0%

70,0%

Government members Parliament Members European parliament members

40,3%

57,1%

2,6%

32,3%

62,1%

5,6%

Yes

No

Constant presence and reproduction of political elites

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Until 1990 Between 1991 and 2000

Between 2001 and 2011

Total

48,4% 53,0% 54,0% 51,2%

51,6% 47,0% 46,0% 48,8%

No

Yes

First election of political elites’ members per parliamentary period

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

1989Α 1989Β 1990 1993 1996 2000 2004 2007 2009

154

45 45

97 107

95

110

90 98

Duration of publicity professions in political elites status

0,0%

5,0%

10,0%

15,0%

20,0%

25,0%

30,0%

35,0%

40,0%

1 to 4 years

5 to 8 years

9 to 12 years

13 to 16 years

17 to 20 years

more than 20 years

33,3%

26,4%

14,6%

10,2%

6,2%

9,4%

39,0%

31,4%

11,4%

7,6% 9,5%

1,0%

Other Professions

Publicity Professions

Publicity professions per influential status

0,0%

10,0%

20,0%

30,0%

40,0%

50,0%

60,0%

70,0%

Government member

Parliament Member European parliament member

25,7%

64,8%

9,5%

34,3%

61,0%

4,7%

Other professions

Publicity Professions

Conclusions

Greek political elites had amended the recruitment process, according to the changes that had taken place inside the society.

Political leadership has gain considerable power at the expense of party members and organs. However, consultants of party leaders, although very powerful has a limited period of “political life”. The same stands for political elites that have emerged from the media.

Political tradition has remain one of the most powerful parameters of the Greek political system.

The stability of the political system during the research period was pictured to the low turnover of the Greek political elites.

The recruitment process of political elites is influenced by the existence of other elites inside a society, since they manage to elect and control the overall process

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