Greece in the 1980s (review)

100 Reviews Richard Clogg, ed. Greece in the 1980s. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983. Pp. xii + 270. $27.50. Publishing the proceedings of conferences and symposia can be a hazardous undertaking. A collection of lectures rarely achieves the unity of theme and style which one expects from a book, coverage of the subject is often incomplete, overlapping of content frequently occurs and the scholarly rigor of a single opus is normally compromised . Happily the subject work, thirteen addresses at a conference held at King's College, University of London in January 1981, succeeds in avoiding most of those pitfalls. Eight of the thirteen contributors are historians or political scientists ; hence, the image on the book's cover of Greece's current political leader, Andreas Papandreou, accurately conveys the overall emphasis which the preface further elaborates. The other five articles address the geographical setting, education, societal values, the Greek church and contemporary poetry. The one conspicuous omission , the more telling since the conference was held to mark Greece's 1981 accession to the European Economic Community, is any extended treatment of the country's economy, though Victor Papacosma comments briefly on it in his article on the Historical Context. CM. Woodhouse places Greece's EEC membership within the setting ofthe Hellenic world's historic relationship with Western Europe , citing much earlier attempts at political or religious union. He observes that the new bond joins Greece to only the western half of a still deeply divided Europe, but suggests that by virtue of her geographic location, culture, religion and experience, Greece is uniquely qualified to become the EEC's bridge to Eastern Europe. Whereas Woodhouse emphasizes Greece's western orientation, Nikiforos Diamandouros' analysis of Greek "political culture" reminds us that attitudes and values towards power, law, the family and the state originating from the era of Ottoman dominance continue to affect political behavior in contemporary Greece. The attempt since 1821 to graft western institutions onto a society whose previous experience had produced deep suspicion of all authority outside the family and a tendency to evade public responsibility or to manipulate it for family advantage, has resulted in the corruption of imported institutions to serve traditional functions and objectives and a consequent "profound ambiguity regarding the political identity and orientation of modern Greece." The twentieth century has seen the continuation of the prolonged crisis in the adjustment of Greek society to the institutions ofthe liberal state, though liberalizing measures since the fall of the junta in 1974 offer some hope that a Reviews 101 new stability has been achieved. The author's success in placing historical and contemporary events in a persuasive conceptual framework makes this essay a small masterpiece of political analysis. George Mavrogordatos' refreshingly bold treatment of The Emerging Party System sees the current parties in a transitional state. He argues that Papandreou's PASOK party belongs to the traditional center by origin and associations. Despite the dramatic events of the last two decades, the party system today holds to the major features ofthe early 1960s: three irreducible political camps of left, center and right with competition for governmental power effectively restricted to the latter two, partly due to Greece's peculiar electoral laws. Theodore Couloumbis employs research techniques which are seldom applied to Greek public affairs, such as systematic interviews and information analysis, in posing and answering several pertinent questions concerning The Structures of Greek Foreign Policy. He finds that activities in such key areas as trade, tourism, education, international treaties and arms procurement objectively link Greece firmly with Europe and the United States, though her excessive dependence upon the U.S. has receded during recent years. From interviews with military officers the author reconstructs something of their outlook , as well as a profile of the diplomatic service from interviews with diplomats and official data. He concludes that Greek defence strategy and foreign policy have traditionally been in the hands of a small group of high officials in virtual isolation from the remainder of society; and argues for the need for broader participation and the development of a "foreign policy community." In a comprehensive and balanced presentation, Richard Clogg traces the troubled history of Greek-Turkish relations. He...