Elections and voters, 1974-2004: old cleavages and new issues

Abstract:

The three-decade period of the Third Greek Republic (1974-2004), established after the fall of the military dictatorship, is characterised by the difficult but constant demarcation from the inherited cleavages of the past and the gradual realignment of the electoral influence of political parties centred around the issues of the present. This process was accelerated in the middle of the 1990s by the gradual departure of the historical leaders, the renewal of the political personnel, the emergence of new issues and the drastic reduction of ideological differences between the major parties. In this way the electoral competition tends to be transformed from a stable expression of identity into a volatile (and often negative) choice on the basis of political issues.