Department of Political Science and Public Administration

Doctoral Dissertation in progress

"The ideological physiognomy and political characteristics of European conservatism. The case of Greece"

Commencement date: December 21, 2021

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is the study of conservative parties in Greece in the long post-war period, and more specifically during the period 1950-2009. The thesis will focus on the Greek Rally, the National Radical Union but also on New Democracy, which is the main representative of the right-wing and center-right political space from Metapolitefsi (the period after the fall of the military junta of 1967-74) in Greece. The scope of the thesis is to investigate the ideological development of the Greek right after the war and to examine the influences at both national and European level. Through the analysis of the ideological-political formation of conservative parties in post-war Europe, we will record on the one hand the European influences and their influence on the rhetoric and practices of the Greek right and on the other the internal-national influences either from liberalism or radical nationalism.

The main hypothesis is that the Greek right has adopted a pro-European character that allowed it to move within the right and central political space and to soften or sharpen, depending on the time, its most reactionary characteristics. The aim is to examine whether the European demands have shaped the policy of the Greek conservative faction over time, which deviated and converged from the basic principles of European conservatism, for what reasons and finally to try to answer the question how pro-European its policy is. The research will be based on the available archival material but also on the study of the political programs, resources and positions of the representatives of the Greek conservative faction and the relational networks they have developed and in which they participate in order to understand the ideological and political identity of the right and its role in the adoption and formulation of the respective policies in Greece and in Europe.