Andreas Papandreou

Abstract

This study is concerned with the political discourse and practice of Andreas Papandreou both as prime minister of Greece (1981–9, 1993–6) and as the founder and ‘charismatic leader’ of PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement). More specifically, it discusses Papandreou’s political discourse and critically presents the PASOK administrations’ work with a view to identifying and evaluating the ideological–political orientation and modalities of the ‘modernization’ experiment that took place in Greece, particularly in the 1980s. The study is thus focused on the ‘populist character’ instilled in PASOK by Andreas Papandreou: to begin with, it offers a critical overview of the formative ‘moments’ of Papandreou’s approach to the Greek ‘political problem’, as formulated first before 1974 and then during PASOK’s years in opposition (1974–81). The discussion of the governmental populist decade 1981–9 (and the three years between 1993 and 1996)—in terms of both the so-called ‘social issue’, the state, and nationalist rhetoric—examines Papandreou’s political legacy, as well as some possible continuities and discontinuities between an oppositional ‘before’ and a governmental ‘after’. Moreover, it proposes a comparative analysis of the Greek case against a setting of social-democratic politics and populist mobilization, aimed at offering an overall understanding of the particular phenomenon. Viewing Αndreas Papandreou as a ‘charismatic’ national-populist leader, the study presents the general directions and internal tensions of his political discourse between ‘populism’ and ‘modernization’.