Theodoros Hatzipantelis
Political competition in Greece: 1996-2007

This paper analyses the axes of political competition in the Greek general elections of 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2007. Constituency level results were examined by using correspondence analysis. The results show that the principal component of competition for general elections of 2004 and 2007 was the axis "major-minor" parties while in the previous elections of 1996 and 2000 the principal axis was the "Left-Right" scale. This result can also be explained by the main issues raised by the parties during the pre-election period of the last two general elections. Finally, the principal components derived from the analysis are used for the formation and description of clusters of similar constituencies.

Christoforos Vernardakis
Ideological values, political stances and hegemony: The powerful variables of political and electoral behaviour in the Greek 2007 elections

The article examines the ideological and political composition of the Greek electorate in the 2007 elections. The form and the way this political composition is depicted by political surveys can shed light on some critical questions concerning the modern Greek political parties, such as the degree of internal ideological and political coherence and the dominant ideological frameworks. Using a series of political and ideological attitudes that appear as variables in political surveys, the article examines whether systematic ideological and political positions do exist and if so, how they are connected with the final political choice and with symbolic references on the Left-Right scale. The core argument of the article is that political and ideological scales used in the quantitative opinion surveys, such as "economic liberalization" or "authoritarian-liberalization", are largely useful not only for the prediction of political tendencies and final choices but also for the better understanding of the classic Left-Right scale.

Kostas Zafiropoulos
New Democracy Party and LAOS: Interdependency and diversity of electoral performance

The paper analyses the electoral flows between New Democracy Party and LAOS in order to understand the two political parties' electoral interdependency during the Greek National Election of 2007. It uses both election results and data provided by an exit poll to a) estimate constituency flows matrices using Maximum Likelihood Method, b) analyse the geographical allocation of flows and c) predict voting behaviour by using attitude variables provided by the exit poll. The paper argues that LAOS has established a rather secure electoral base.

Panayotis Koustenis
KKE and SYRIZA in Attica: Two strangers in the same city?

This article aims to determine the sociological, demographic and political profile of KKE and SYRIZA's voters in the elections of 2007 in Attica and to interpret their electoral behaviour. After a comparison of the basic characteristics of the two parties, it seems that they address two completely different, almost contradictory, groups of voters. Hence, the competition between them is in decline. KKE presents a stable and compact power in the working class western regions of Athens. On the other hand, SYRIZA's power is mainly concentrated to the middle class northern suburbs. Interestingly its electoral influence in western suburbs is much lower than in the past. This change firstly detected in the 2004 elections disengages SYRIZA from the left electoral tradition. Indeed, in the elections of 2007, SYRIZA succeeded in increasing its electoral base by attracting non-traditional voters of the Left. This fact however does not allow safe predictions for the future. A basic analytical instrument used herein is a sociological division of Attica region in four strata-zones.

Panayis Panagiotopoulos
Social integration and social marginalization in the elections 2007. Estimations for the crisis of political representation of middle classes

This article seeks to examine the terms on which the social integration and the danger of social marginalization were expressed in the parliamentary elections of 2007. In order to achieve this purpose we follow an empirical elaboration of selected aspects of the "social identity of the vote", constructing a vertical axis supplementary to the usual one between left/right. This axis enables us to find out that the diminishment of the power of the two parties running for government – and especially that of PASOK – reflects less a social downtrend and more a tension of political radicalism followed by the partial demand (request) of the middle class for cultural representation. The correlation of profession, education and vote, clarifies that the "left vote" – in sociological terms – is internally differentiated up to an extraordinary range (between KKE and SYRIZA). Additionally, it reveals the significant reversal of the sociological analogies between PASOK and ND. Finally the article comments and interprets the middle social strata's dispersed political representation (as it was expressed in the elections of September 2007) in relation to the parties' predominate modes of discourse and presentation.

Published 2009-01-23