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Hellenism under siege: the national-populist logic of antiglobalization rhetoric in Greece

2011; Routledge; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13569317.2011.540939

1469-9613

Emmanouil Tsatsanis,

Asian Studies and History

Abstract Using as a focal point the controversy over the content of an elementary-school level history textbook in Greece, the main argument put forth in this article is that the campaign to withdraw this textbook was preceded by and further facilitated an ongoing process of ideological convergence between forces of the left and the right. It is argued that these forces increasingly structure their political discourse on the basis of a unified 'interpretative frame' and align their efforts to politicize cultural, symbolic and educational issues as part of a broader project of cultural protectionism. By examining the different stages of the mobilization effort, the article documents the process of frame emergence and discusses its potential for a more profound and lasting ideological transformation in Greece. At a more theoretical level, the article also considers the usefulness of the concept of 'interpretative frames', particularly in its ability to address the familiar micro–macro divide in studies of ideology and to illuminate the mechanisms of ideological change. Notes 1. For more detailed arguments on the necessity to focus more on social mechanisms see Jon Elster, Explaining Social Behavior. More Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 32–50; Peter Hedström and Richard Swedberg, 'Social mechanisms: an introductory essay', in P. Hedström and R. Swedberg (Eds) Social Mechanisms. An Analytical Approach to Social Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 15–17; and Aage B. Sørensen, 'Theoretical mechanisms and the empirical study of social processes', in P. Hedström and R. Swedberg (Eds), Social Mechanisms. An Analytical Approach to Social Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 238–266. 2. Andreas Pantazopoulos, The Democracy of Emotion [I Dimokratia tis Sygkinisis] (Athens: Polis, 2002), pp. 93–99. 3. For a more detailed discussion on the conceptual morphology of ideologies see Michael Freeden, Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), especially Chapter 2. 4. Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind (New York: Ballentine, 1972). 5. Erving Goffman, Frame Analysis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974). 6. David Snow, E. Burke Rochford, Stephen K. Worden and Robert D. Benford, 'Frame alignment processes, micromobilization, and movement participation', American Sociological Review, 51(4) (1986), p. 464. 7. David Snow and Robert Benford, 'Master frames and cycles of protest', in A. Morris and C. McClurg Mueller (Eds) Frontiers in Social Movement Theory (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 173. 8. See Pamela Oliver and Hank Johnston, 'What a good idea! Ideology and frames in social movement research', Mobilization, 5 (2000), pp. 37–54; David Snow and Robert Benford, 'Clarifying the relationship between framing and ideology in the study of social movements: a comment on Oliver and Johnston', Mobilization, 5 (2000), pp. 55–60. 9. Even though logical inconsistencies are far from rare. 10. Mayer Zald, 'Culture, ideology, and strategic framing', in D. McAdam, J. McCarthy and M. Zald (Eds) Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 262. 11. Snow and Benford, op. cit., Ref. 8, pp. 55–57. 12. Snow et al., op. cit., Ref. 6, p. 467. 13. For micro-level frame-bridging see, for example, Hank Johnston, Tales of Nationalism: Catalonia, 1939–1979 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991). 14. Snow and Benford, op. cit., Ref. 8, p. 57. 15. Freeden, op. cit., Ref. 3, p. 80. 16. Margaret Canovan, 'Taking politics to the people: Populism as the ideology of democracy', in Y. Mény and Y. Surel (Eds) Democracies and the Populist Challenge (New York: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 25–44. 17. Paul Taggart, 'Populism and representative politics in contemporary Europe', Journal of Political Ideologies, 9(3) (2004), p. 275. 18. Freeden, op. cit., Ref. 3. 19. Koen Abts and Stefan Rummens, 'Populism versus democracy', Political Studies, 55 (2007), pp. 405–424; Ben Stanley, 'The thin ideology of populism', Journal of Political Ideologies, 13(1) (2008), pp. 95–110. 20. Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason (London: Verso, 2005). 21. Margaret Canovan, 'Populism for political theorists?', Journal of Political Ideologies, 9(3) (2003), pp. 248–249. 22. Yannis Papadopoulos, 'National-populism in Western Europe: an ambivalent phenomenon', Institut d'Etudes Politiques et Internationales (Université de Lausanne, 2000), available at http://www2.unil.ch/iepi/pdfs/papadopoulos1.pdf, pp. 5–6. 23. See, for example, Cas Mudde, Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 15–20; Pierre-André Taguieff, 'La rhétorique du national-populisme', Mots, 9 (1984), pp. 113–139; Pierre-André Taguieff, 'Populismes et antipopulismes: le choc des argumentations', Mots, 55 (1998), pp. 5–26. 24. According to Snow and Benford, master frames 'are to movement-specific collective action frames as paradigms are to finely tuned theories. Master frames are generic; specific collective action frames are derivative' (Snow and Benford, op. cit., Ref. 7), p. 138. 25. Snow and Benford, ibid., pp. 138–139; see also Fransisca Polleta and M. Kai Ho, 'Frames and their consequences', in R. Goodin and C. Tilly (Eds) The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 190. 26. See Takis Michas, Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milošević's Serbia (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2002). 27. Alberto Spektorowski, 'The New Right: Ethno-regionalism, ethno-pluralism, and the emergence of a neo-fascist third way', Journal of Political Ideologies, 8(1) (2003), p. 112. 28. For a detailed account of an antiglobalization collective action frame created by a movement of the left, see Marcos Ancelovici, 'Organizing against globalization: The case of ATTAC in France', Politics & Society, 30(3) (2002), pp. 427–463. 29. David Snow and Robert Benford, 'Ideology, frame resonance and participant mobilization', International Social Movement Research, 1 (1988), p. 210. 30. See Thalia Dragona, 'When national identity is threatened: Psychological coping strategies [Otan i ethniki taytotita apilite: psychologikes stratigikes antimetopisis]', in A. Fragkoudaki and T. Dragona (Eds) What is our Country? [Ti ein' i patrida mas;] (Athens: Alexandreia, 1997), pp. 72–105. 31. Michael Billig, Banal Nationalism (London: Sage Publications, 1995). 32. See Alasdair Spark, 'Conjuring order: the new world order and conspiracy theories of globalization', in J. Parish and M. Parker (Eds) The Age of Anxiety: Conspiracy Theories and the Human Sciences (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2001), pp. 46–62; Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003); and Daniel Pipes, Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where it Comes From (New York: Free Press, 1997). 33. These refer to the process of 'linkage of two or more ideologically congruent, but structurally unconnected frames' (bridging) as well as the process of 'clarification and invigoration of an interpretive frame that bears on a particular issue, problem or set of events' (amplification); Snow and Benford, op. cit., Ref. 8, pp. 467, 469. 34. See Giannes Stephanides, Stirring the Greek Nation. Political Culture, Irredentism and Anti-americanism in Post-War Greece, 1945–1947 (London: Ashgate, 2007). 35. Michas, op. cit., Ref. 26, pp. 132–133. 36. Harilaos Florakis, 'Speech at the 16th conference of KKE [Omilia sto 16o synedrio tou KKE]', Rizospastis, 16 December 2000. 37. George Mavrogordatos, 'Orthodoxy and nationalism in the Greek case', West European Politics, 26(1) (2003), p. 125. 38. Yannis Stavrakakis, 'Antinomies of formalism: Laclau's theory of populism and the lessons from religious populism in Greece', Journal of Political Ideologies, 9(3) (2004), p. 258. 39. Cyrillos Costopoulos, 'Identities and the "New Order" [Taytotites kai i "Nea Taksi" Pragmaton]', Dialogos, 21 (2000), p. 29. 40. Quoted in Manolis Vasilakis, The Plague of God [I Mastiga tou Theou] (Athens: Gnoseis, 2006), pp. 193–194. 41. See Ios, 'Christodoulos against the "new order" [Christodoulos kata tis "neas taksis"]', Eleftherotypia, 29 December 2006. 42. Christos Yannaras, 'Henry Kissinger: a progressive Greek [Henry Kissinger: Ellin Proodeytikos]', Kathimerini, 24 August 1997. 43. Kritovoulos, 'Antieconomics [Antioikonomika]', Oikonomikos Tahydromos, 14 August 1997. 44. Marios Ploritis, To Vima tis Kyriakis, 31 August 1997. 45. Ios, 'Greek style Conspiracy Theories [Synomotikes Theories a la Ellinika]', Eleftherotypia, 1 April 2001. 46. Liana Kanelli, 'Interview with the Archbishop of Cyprus', Nemesis, (35) (February 1997), p. 24. 47. Thomas Koenig, 'On frames and framing. Anti-Semitism as free speech: A case study'. Paper presented at the IAMCR Annual Meeting, Porto Alegre (25–30 July 2004). 48. Thomas Rochon, Culture Moves: Ideas, Activism, and Changing Values (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998). 49. See Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977). 50. Rochon, op. cit., Ref. 48. 51. Rochon, ibid., p. 23. 52. Public school educators, then, as members of an official 'intelligentsia', can do more than merely disseminate state-approved 'historical knowledge' as discussed in Kosaku Yoshino, Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 4. It becomes obvious, in this instance, that school teachers can also 'police' the educational content produced by the state and react against departures from conventional teachings of national history. 53. Pan-Macedonian Association, 'Overview of the 6th Grade History Book and the Four Books of Joint Balkan History of CDRSEE', available at http://www.panmacedonian.info, 2007. 54. The opening paragraph, submitted also to antibaro.gr, reads: 'The book in question constitutes the first attempt to produce a generation of Greeks, who, in the name of a (supposedly) "open" education, will have a collective memory and consciousness deprived of all historical ties. This generation will be unable to comprehend Greek distinctiveness within a rapidly changing world that enables and encourages the communication of peoples. Consequently, this generation will be willing to submit to third party dictates.' Pan-Pontian Federation of USA and Canada, 'Letter to the Prime Minister [Epistoli ston Prothypourgo]', 23 March 2007, available at http://www.antibaro.gr/society/pan_pontian2007.pdf 55. See Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983); John Breuilly, 'The state and nationalism', in M. Guibernau and J. Hutchinson (Eds) Understanding Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), pp. 32–52; Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: the Modernization of Rural France, 1870–1914 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1976). 56. Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986). 57. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, Revised Ed. 1991). 58. See, for example, Montserrat Guibernau, Nations without States: Political Communities in a Global Age (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999). 59. See, for example, Hans-Georg Betz, Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe (London: Macmillan Press, 1994); and Jens Rydgren, 'The sociology of the radical right', Annual Review of Sociology, 33 (2007), pp. 241–262. 60. See Ulrich Beck, World Risk Society (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999); David Held, Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995); and Roland Robertson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (London: Sage, 1992). 61. Civil society is understood here as the entire space of voluntary associations that is contrasted to the coercive institutions of the state; cf. Michael Walzer, 'The concept of civil society', in M. Walzer (Ed.) Toward a Global Civil Society (Providence, RI: Berghahn Books, 1995), p. 7. 62. Spektorowski, op. cit., Ref. 27, p. 116. 63. Nikiforos Diamandouros, 'Cultural dualism and political change in postauthoritarian Greece', Working Paper 1994/50 (Madrid: Juan March Institute, 1994). 64. Diamandouros, ibid., pp. 11–18. 65. Such economic preferences most commonly take the form of 'welfare chauvinism'. For a more thorough discussion of this concept see Mudde, op. cit., Ref. 23, pp. 130–132; and Herbert Kitschelt, The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1995). 66. For example, Hanspeter Kriesi, 'The transformation of cleavage politics', European Journal of Political Research, 33 (1998), p. 180; Hanspeter Kriesi, 'Movements of the left, movements of the right: putting the mobilization of two new types of social movements into political context', in H. Kitschelt, P. Lange, G. Marks and J. Stephens (Eds) Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 402.