Abstract
The chapter will present the descriptive characteristics of MPs elected with the Conservative Party of New Democracy (ND), one of the two basic pillars of the Greek bipartyism. Between 1989 and 2019 ND gained office five times (1990, 2004, 2007, 2012 and 2019) and changed party leader six times. The period under investigation begins and ends also with two of the largest turnover percentages for the party: in June 1989 nearly half of its MPs (46.9%) entered Parliament for the first time, marking the beginning of a new political class inside the party, different from the first generation of post-dictatorship MPs, elected after 1974. Thirty years later, in 2019, another major turnover for ND (39.2%) marks the beginning of a new political generation. Having as a unit of analysis, ND’s Parliamentary Party Group (PPG), the chapter presents the basic descriptive characteristics of all ND MPs across time with a focus on newcomers. Their sociodemographic characteristics are analysed vis-à-vis changes in the ideological nature of the party, the effect of the election of a new leader and changes in party competition, with the aim to construct a typology of conservative MPs across time.
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Notes
- 1.
Besides those elected, we include also interim ones.
- 2.
This is probably another case of ‘contagion from the Left’ since this reform was first introduced in Greek politics by George Papandreou when he was elected president of PASOK in 2004.
- 3.
- 4.
A move that, no doubt, was significantly pushed forward by the covid-19 pandemic and the successive lockdowns and restrictive measures that inhibited face-to-face communication.
- 5.
One must consider the electoral system in 1985. For the first (and last) time in Greece, closed lists were adopted as part of the legislation and not due to snap elections. According to Konstantinos Mitsotakis, the closed lists system caused many troubles in the candidate selection process (Papahelas, 2019, pp. 57–59) and probably did not leave ample room for the renewal of the party lists.
- 6.
However, as Pappas notes (1998, p. 83) most old ND parliamentarians of the 1970s did not step down due to electoral defeat, but for other reasons (old age or death, or the ‘transfer’ of their seat to a younger family member). Therefore, in many cases, what appears as renewal is simply the passing of the seat to the younger generation.
- 7.
Based on our calculations, in the June 2012 Parliament only four MPs elected with ND belonged to the pre-1989 generation of MPs: Anastasios Nerantzis and Ioannis Tragakis first elected in 1974, Antonis Samaras first elected in 1977 and Vyron Polydoras, first elected in 1981.
- 8.
As defined in the typology proposed by Kenig et al. (2015).
- 9.
For data collection mode and methodological considerations see Chapter 1 of this volume.
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Kakepaki, M. (2023). Young Conservatives, Media Personalities or Old-School Elites? The Many Faces of New Democracy MPs Across Time. In: Kakepaki, M., Kountouri, F. (eds) Parliamentary Elites in Transition. Reform and Transition in the Mediterranean. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11694-0_5
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