“SIn these 50 years, the trajectory of PASoK was essentially identified with the trajectory of Post-colonization”. This observation is submitted, among others, by the professor Giannis Voulgaris in the introductory note of the volume “1974 – 2024, PASOK: The rise, the sovereignty, the crisis”, which “To Vima tis Kyriaki” offers today with its complete edition and will then be available from its archive.
Giannis Voulgaris, one of the scientific editors of the volume, condenses with a series of key points the main characteristics of this identification, which are analyzed, each from their own point of view, by historians, political scientists and sociologists who closely followed its course PASOK and its evolution over time, but also politicians who shaped its character in these 50 years of life that began with its declaration Andreas Papandreou on September 3, 1974.
Anniversaries, and more commonly “round” ones, offer the trigger not simply for a reminder but for a deeper reflection. As the former prime minister and former president of PaSoK notes George Papandreou in a text rich in experiential experiences, “my personal testimony of the way I experienced that historical period in which we were faced with and participated in the transition of the country from the junta to democracy, but having also handled the biggest crisis since the Postcolonialism, has convinced me that it does not matter to simply deal with problems and needs, but above all to understand their depth and origin”.
Unconventionality but also exaggerations
Correspondingly and picking up the thread from the founding of the party, the former deputy prime minister and former president of PaSoK Evangelos Venizelos points out that “with the “Declaration of the 3rd of September” an unconventional, for the conditions of the time, perception of political speech, political organization, the international position of the country, the social stratification itself and the political representation of society was expressed. The aesthetics of Postcolonialism began to take shape.”
It is also worth noting that “the sense of the straight course of improvement and rise of the standard of living, the gradual but irrevocably acquired had at the beginning a “radical innocence”, behind which, unfortunately, populist exaggerations, mistakes, missteps, guilt, contradictions, new privileges came and hid. ». To then add how “without the PASOK and its own bold initiatives and contradictions, the sequence of the great goals of society and the nation in the last 50 years would not have been formulated”.
Analyzing a phase of Postcolonialism that was also identified with the PASoK, that of “modernization”, the former minister and professor Tasos Giannitsis poses a series of questions: What content does the term “modernization” really have in the case of Greece? Is the adoption of practices of other economically and politically advanced countries? Is the adoption of new policies leading to significant changes in relationships that prevailed in the past in the country? In determining this, do the intentions or only the result of a policy matter? What does failure or success of a policy mean when the effects can simultaneously have a different – positive or negative – sign for different strata and different periods? How do all these factors weigh up for policy valuation?
These questions constitute the yeast of a permanent reflection, in which an observation of T. Giannitsis himself has a place. That “even the concept of ‘modernization’, which in itself is not a shell term, was often used disparagingly, with the aim of attacking forms of politics that would improve problematic situations”.
Karamanlis and the origin of ideas
In the reflection of an anniversary, observation “from the outside” and scientific study have the same value as recording the events “from the inside” and internal awakening. The historian Spyros Drainas observes, among other things, that “Papandreou’s admission that with Karamanlis in power “something” has changed is noteworthy. Pointing out the ability of Karamanlis in the current situation to unite the Right indicates Papandreou’s ambition to emerge as an awe-inspiring rival of the Left.”
THE Vasilis Panagiotopouloshistorian and also one of the editors of the volume, dissects the political personality of Andreas Papandreou as well as a path, which is still offered as an object of research. “The origin of the Marxist ideas of the genius student Andreas Papandreou”, writes, “it is of particular importance and, although we know a lot about it, the scope for learning more is great.”
The professor of Sociology and Communication Vassilis Vamvakas analyzes the phenomenon of PASOK as a “style of life and power”: “The refraction of the Pasok style can be found today in many humorous memes that are nostalgic and at the same time “troll” the era of political hegemony” states. The historian Kostas Katsapis “reads” the PASOK as cultural “child” of the 60s to reach up to “identity crisis” of 2010, while the historian Sotiris Rizas focuses on foreign policy and the route “from the PSOC of anti-Americanism and opposition to the European Community to the PSOC of integration into the EMU”.
The journalist and editor Petros Papasarandopoulos focuses on “very turbulent relationship” of PaSoK with the Left, the assistant professor Chrysanthos Tassis in his internal party conflicts and also assistant professor Kostas Eleftheriou at “its post-hegemonic condition”, which has opened up new fields of reflection.
#reflection #anniversary #STEP
