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From Hegemony to Pasokification: Socialist MPs in Transition

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Parliamentary Elites in Transition

Part of the book series: Reform and Transition in the Mediterranean ((RTM))

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Abstract

PASOK is the party that, more than any other, is believed to have influenced contemporary Greek society of the Third Hellenic Republic. The current chapter aims to explore whether changes in party’s MPs’ profiles and trajectories can be interpreted through PASOK’s main organisational transformations. Our analysis covers the period between 1989 and 2019. Research data derives from the original data set ‘Members of the Greek Parliament (1989–2019)’ of the National Centre of Social Research (EKKE). Findings were divided into three main research periods based on party’s transformations. The first period (1989–1996) is that of the ‘partisan’ representative which is characterised by a traditional profile in terms of sociodemographic characteristics and political experience. During the second period (1996–2012) is evident the ‘pluralistic’ representative which has as main characteristics the differentiation in terms of demographic profile and trajectories. Finally, the last period (2012–2019) is monitored by the ‘cadre’ representative which has as determinant factor the ‘survival’ of some influential MPs of the pre-crisis periods. Given that findings, to a large extent, can be correlated to party’s transformations it can be argued that MPs’ changes, throughout the period, constitute an additional interpreting dimension of PASOK’s route towards ‘Pasokification’.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    According to Spourdalakis (1993), PASOK was a cadre party since the first elections of the democratic restoration in 1974 and was later characterised as a mass party (1974–1977), while 1977–1985 presents catch-all characteristics without abandoning mass structures. Finally, after winning its second election in 1985, PASOK became more of a cartel party.

  2. 2.

    The index monitors the different forms of political trajectories, i.e. party positions, trade unions, local administration, EU posts (Kountouri, 2016, pp. 73–74).

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Karoulas, G. (2023). From Hegemony to Pasokification: Socialist MPs in Transition. 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_6

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