Abstract
In January 1975, the Greek Prime Minister, Constantine Caramanlis, stated in parliament: ‘The people have entrusted me with power. They did not tell me how to exercise it’.1 This statement has no particular significance if one sees it as an expression of the fact that, in contrast to direct democracy, in any contemporary representative democracy there is no day-to-day, direct control of the elected leaders by the electorate. However, the statement was made only six months after the collapse of the colonels’ regime and a few months after the general elections of November 1974 which Caramanlis had won with his new party, the New Democracy. The assertion by Caramanlis expresses a general conception of the role of the prime minister in Greece, and has been shared by other prime ministers who have succeeded Caramanlis in power. The general conception is of a prime minister who is unrestrained by other political institutions, such as parliament, the government, or the governing party.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
The statement was made on 8 January 1975 and is cited in Voule ton Hellenon, Praktika ton Synedriaseon tes Voules epi ton Syzeteseon tou Syntagmatos 1975 [Greek Parliament, Parliamentary Minutes of the Debates on the Constitution of 1975] (Athens: National Printing Office, 1975) p. 17, and is quoted in Dimitris S. Athanassopoulos, Kyvernese kai Kyvernetika Organa [Government and Governmental Bodies] (Athens: Ant. N. Sakkoulas, 1986) p. 198.
G. I. Rallis, Hores Efthynes [Hours of Responsibility] (Athens: Euroekdotike, 1983). In this book Rallis published his memoirs of the period in which he was prime minister in 1980–1.
On the organization of the chief executive and the core executive of Greece there are several specialized monographs in Greek: S. I. Flogaitis, To Helleniko Dioiketiko Systema [The Greek Administrative System] (Athens: Ant. N. Sakkoulas, 1987); A. N. Loverdos, Kyvernese, Syllogike Leitourgia kai Politike Efthyne [Government, Collective Functioning and Political Responsibility] (Athens: Ant. N. Sakkoulas, 1991); Athanassopoulos, Kyvernese kai Kyvernetika Organa; A. Makrydemetres, He Organose tes Kyverneses: Zetemata Synoches kai Diafforopoieses [The Organization of Government: Issues of Cohesion and Differentiation] (Athens: Ant. N. Sakkoulas, 1992); idem., Hoi Hellenes Prothypourgoi [The Greek Prime Ministers] (Athens: I. Sideris, 1997); and, in English, D. A. Sotiropoulos, Populism and Bureaucracy: The Case of Greece under PASOK, 1981–1989 (London: The University of Notre Dame Press, 1996).
P. D. Dagtoglou, ‘Constitutional and Administrative Law’, in K. D. Kerameus and P. J. Kozyris (eds), Introduction to Greek Law (Deventer and Antwerp: Kluwever Publishers, 1988) p. 23.
See the relevant opinions of Aristovoulos Manessis, Evangelos V. Venizelos and Giorgos Papademetriou referred to by D. T. Tsatsos, He Anadeixe tou Prothypourgou [The Appointment of Prime Minister] (Athens: Ant. N. Sakkoulas, 1989) pp. 14–15. Constitutional debates on the appointment and the role of the prime minister may be found in P. K. Spyropoulos, He Anadeixe tou Prothypourgou [The Appointment of Prime Minister] (Athens: Ant. N. Sakkoulas, 1989) and in E. V. Venizelos, Mathemata Syntagmatikou Dikaiou [A Course on Constitutional Law], vol. I (Thessalonike: Parateretes) pp. 421–7 and 432–4.
N. C. Alivizatos, ‘Kratike Exousia kai Politikoi Thesmoi’ [State Power and Political Institutions], Synchrona Themata, 16/February (1983) pp. 26–7.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2000 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sotiropoulos, D.A. (2000). Administering the Summit: the Greek Case. In: Peters, B.G., Rhodes, R.A.W., Wright, V. (eds) Administering the Summit. Transforming Government. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62797-4_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62797-4_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-62799-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-62797-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)