Beyond Politics: Society and the State

Abstract

n searching for answers to the question of how European membership has affected Greece, one must consider both the impact of Europe upon the elite levels and the greater society as a whole, something described as “downloading” in chapter 1. In the previous chapter, I focused on the problems of downloading in regard to identity. Even though it seems that there were many insurmountable obstacles to Greek membership because of the issues of multiculturalism and illegal immigration, in each case the extremes were mainly avoided. More importantly, however, one should look at the relationship between society and political leadership to better understand the behavior of Greece within the EU. Having looked at the political party structures and the changes of political organizations in Greece and then the issues of identity in the previous chapters, this chapter examines the interaction between institutions such as the state, media, political pressure groups and elites, and the way Greece’s membership to the EU was affected. Finally, developments within Greek civil society must be considered in order to give the reader a better understanding of the changes within Greek civil society since it became a member of the EU.