Suchergebnisse

This book examines three cases of democratic transitions by self-transformation of the non-democratic regimes in Southern Europethe Spanish reforma pactada-ruptura pactada of 1976-77, the Greek "Markezinis experiment" of 1973, and the Turkish democratic transition of 1983in a comparative perspective. The author argues that a democratic transition initiated by the regime elites is, in contrast to widely held assumptions and notwithstanding some reservations on whether democracy can be (re-)introduced by non-democrats, worth viewing as a "window of opportunity" for democratisation. It is up to the democratic counter-elites to respond to it, using the civil society and the international factor as allies to achieve their goal of acquiring more concessions from the regime. Ioannis Tzortis is Teaching Fellow in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK.

"More than half a century after the imposition of the dictatorship of the Colonels in Greece, a number of questions related to its nature, development and demise remains understudied and feebly answered. One of the most interesting -yet understudied- incidents of the dictatorship is its ill-fated self-transformation attempt into some form of civilian rule in 1973: the so-called 'Markezinis experiment', after the politician who assumed the task of heading the transition government and lead to elections. The whole venture lasted a mere eight weeks, faced heavy opposition from both the opposition elites and the civil society and eventually collapsed by a military hard-liners' coup. The story of this failed attempt raises a series of questions: what was the nature of the dictatorship of the Colonels, and why did it take it six years to seek some form of civilianisation? Were the intentions of Papadopoulos and Markezinis sincere, and were the politicians of the opposition right to refuse to legitimise the 'experiment'? What was the Polytechnic students' uprising role in the demise of the 'experiment'? Was there an American reaction, and was it the main reason for the collapse of the transition, as Markezinis claimed? The book seeks to address the above questions, and argues that the failure of the 'Markezinis experiment' paved the way for the actual transition of 1974 as it happened. The research is supported by foreign (British and American) archival resources, as well as by private archives and personal interviews. The book concludes by briefly seeking to trace some potential alternative paths for the failed self- transformation attempt, and by accounting for the long-term consequences of the failure of the 'Markezinis experiment'."--Bloomsbury Publishing

AbstractThe article compares the failed self-transformation attempt in 1973 in Greece and the actual transition that occurred in 1983 in Turkey. These two cases of regime-initiated transitions to democracy with differing outcomes beg the question: If the 1973 transition in Greece led to a crippled democracy controlled by the military (as in Turkey 10 years later), why was it brought to an abrupt end by the very group that it was supposed to benefit—i.e. the military themselves? The author seeks to answer this question by comparing the position of the Turkish and Greek military in their respective power structures, which produced different regimes (hierarchical in Turkey vs. non-hierarchical in Greece). Moreover, in both cases, the transitions were not perceived as equally benefitting the military—hence the different outcomes, i.e. the failure of the Greek transition and the problematic democracy in Turkey.

This essay presents the findings of comparative research on democratic transitions by reforma in Greece, Spain, and Turkey but in a framework not previously used and one rather different from the one established in the now-classical study of democratic transitions set by Guillermo O'Donnell and Laurence Whitehead in the 1980s. The departing point of this comparative approach is a case unknown to many: the ill-fated 1973 Greek attempt at self-transformation, known as "the Markezinis experiment" after Spyros Markezinis, who assumed the task of bringing the country to democracy in the way Adolfo Suárez González would do in Spain four years later. The attempt stalled before it was ended by a coup organized by the regime hard-liners tacitly backed by the military as an institution. The cases compared include Spain and Turkey, which underwent similar transitions, but with very different outcomes: consolidated democracy and "difficult democracy," respectively. The reasons are sought in the different regime natures and elite and counterelite choices.