Political Culture

Greek political culture has been characterized by a tension between, on the one hand, modern institutions and the participant values these have instilled, and on the other hand, the traditional/parochial values of the past. This chapter aims to explain the ways in which the participant and parochial elements of Greek political culture have interacted with reference to four dimensions of political culture, including types of engagement, citizenship, and political equality, solidarity, and the politics of consensus, and finally social structures of co-operation. While the Greek political system proved surprisingly resilient during the post-dictatorship era, and Greece’s membership of the European Union entailed a process of Europeanization, the 2008 eurozone crisis exposed its inherent tensions and systemic weaknesses, revealing its propensity for instability, extremism, and illiberalism. At the same time, however, the fragmentation of the party system and the entry of a few new political personnel have also facilitated the possibility for some reforms in the areas of human rights, minority policies, Church–State relations, and foreign policy. This suggests that political culture has also evolved, illustrating that, while as the literature argues, political cultures shape democratic institutions and to a great extent determine their stability, at the same time institutions also shape political cultures.