Civil Society versus Democratic Globalization: How Greece took the Road of Political Radicalization

While both international actors and institutions claim that the process of democratic globalisation leads to positive public effects and stable financial results for all the involved states, some countries already took the road of political cohesion from supranational and intergovernmental alliances by implementing innovative and deliberative democratic tactics so to bring back their national sovereignty. To explain this disturbing social phenomenon and to bring more light on such aspects as political radicalization and economic disaffiliation, this article concentrates on the Greek case and the state`s current governmental formation made by a radical left and an extreme far – right political party as a manner of consolidating its national public serenity and financial stability.

Social Disturbance and Political Turns in Times of Globalization

Social movements are forms of collective civil action which do not represent a new political side-effect caused by the recent dynamic changes in world`s democratic local and international affairs but rather a combination of common public practices which concentrate on political and social issues and which are generally associated with the formation of political parties, public organizations and trade unions with a long historical background, e.g. feminism, Greenpeace organization, youth and labour movements. The citizens` movements, which we know today, are related to intensive cultural and economic processes and governmental turning points, which are frequently facilitated and enhanced by the use of social media, e.g. the revolutionary demonstrations during the Arab spring in the Mediterranean region and the political rise of far-right extremism and nationalism in Europe.

Although the social movements are recognized as supportive components of democratic evolution, a troubling fact is that the amount of protests has increased drastically during the general period of national adaptation of states towards the process of globalization. This observation can be validated statistically through the number of demonstrations which became more intensive for short period of time, i.e. from 59 protests in 2006 to 112 during the first six months of 2013. Meanwhile, the many citizens have steadily turned aside from their active political habits. For instance, Europe demonstrates a decrease towards its common electoral support from an average of 80 per cent in the mid-1980s to 61 per cent in 2012. Similarly, this tendency was also followed by members and adherents of political parties, i.e. the social trust in European parties has dropped considerably since 1980.

Motives for these radical civil and political turns are explained by the citizens with the emergence of corruption, growing governmental unawareness towards national and international political and financial practices, administrative neglect to collaborate with other institutional representatives, prioritization of ideological political concepts and support of globalization practices instead to maintain and achieve the electorate`s public demands so to work in favour the national priorities.

Democratic Globalization: why the Realisation of the Process remained Perilous towards states` national affairs?

Globalization explains a process of international integration of world views, products and ideas which does not necessarily brings a constructive impact to all democratic and sovereign states. Since there is no balance between powerful and still developing states, the globalization process had eased the establishment of two basic tendencies in transnational politics: it had intensified the capability of each state to participate in certain political and economic activities and had increased the risk possibilities which could endanger the states` sovereignty. Since powerful states, e.g. the United States, United Kingdom and France, initially have a large scope of cultural influence and economic interests over the developing countries in different regions e.g. the Middle East, India and North Africa, they practically have the ability to effect administratively and financially on each nation in the world.

Furthermore, this lack of balance between world powers put the superior states in a delicate position since they became frequently recognized by the developing states as political and commercial suppressors. This negative attitude evoked, from one side, the powerful states to be more sensible regarding their national security and defence policies and from other side, the so called suppressed countries to become more hostile and violent on different international levels, i.e. a total of 152 terrorist attacks occurred in five EU Member States and the majority of them took place in France (63), Spain (33) and the UK (35). In 2013, 535 individuals were arrested for offences related to terrorism. Most of the arrests were registered again in the same states: France (225), Spain (90) and the UK (77).

Moreover, many developing countries passed through a serious economic instability inspired by the globalization development. This circumstance enabled various civil movements such as far – right and radical left political parties to succeed in creating new innovative political strategies and manners to spread their ideology, e.g. digital propaganda over the civil societies and thus to reach their prime goal to establish governmental order based on homogenous national systems, hate against ethnic minorities, anarchism, refuse to participate in politico-economic alliances and to cooperate with the European supranational institutions.

Greece`s financial Collapse and Political Cohesion from the EU

The global financial and economic crisis left Greece in a heavy recession within the period of 2008 and 2013. According to the Greek`s official statistical authority, ELSTAT, in 2008, the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased to 25, 7 per cent and the public and household consumption fall with 21 per cent, while the unemployment increased with 20, 6 per cent.

In 2009, the drop in state`s household consumption followed the same negative tendency as in the majority of EU Member States. In 2010 and 2011, the household consumption in many counties had experienced an economic recovery but in Greece, it continued to decline during the next years. Moreover, within 2009 and 2012, many companies which were operating in different local and international sectors remained obligated to cancel or re-establish their working functions. Thus, one of the Greece`s main income sources also bankrupted, i.e. in 2012, the media spending in advertising reached 1,14 billion euro, while in 2008 it decreased with 57 per cent and reached 2, 67 billion euro.

Although the Greek`s economy is now formally stated by the European agencies as in process of recovering and return back to a fiscal growth, these positive indicators do not ease the citizens in their struggle with EU and its role of an international political and financial regulator. The collective Greek public disaffection against the institution was demonstrated in national elections on January 2015 through the election of the radical left party Syriza and the support of a governmental coalition between it and The Independent Greeks, a nationalist right party which is also known under the name ANEL.

According to the Greek ministry of internal affairs, Syriza party gained 36, 3 per cent of the votes which assured it 149 seats in the parliament of 300 seats in total. ANEL, from other side, received 4, 75 per cent of the electoral support and 13 seats. Many Greek citizens believe that Syriza`s leader and current Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, will get the state out of the economic crisis through the partnership with The Independent Greeks. The two parties are ideological opponents but their present alliance is formed due to the common willingness to resist the EU`s policy of austerity which, according to them, caused the high level of unemployment in Greece and leaded the country to a total financial dependency on EU and IMF if it wants to avoid bankruptcy, i.e. currently, Greece has an external debt estimated on 320 milliard euro or 176 per cent of state`s GDP.

Political Innovation during Critical Democratic Conditions and the Power of Social Optimism

Policy as a deliberative system of principles constantly requires decisive political actions. Whether social systems are stable and the economy works with sufficient regularity, the democracy is functioning smoothly and without the need of an intensive public interference into the welfare affairs. It is not difficult, in such time of national prosperity, to lay aside the importance of authority attendance in the policy making process. Whether the economy becomes unstable, the persistent democratic functionality starts to be incompatible regarding the new democratic conditions, e.g. destabilisation of traditional governmental patterns, rise of conflicts among official financial models and contradiction in policy directions.

However, there are plenty of strategies created to solve economic issues but whether a collective national choice is to prevail as an actual political decision then there is a public awareness towards the importance of democratic authority regulation. In this sense, the present political experiment in Greece is certainly orientated towards the establishment of new democratic mechanism in order to bring back the welfare prosperity and to realize the social expectations. Even if the financial instability in the Balkan state has already caused intensive protests, institutional troubles and arduous political controversy, both citizens (though their vote) and politicians (through the establishment of unconventional political coalition) succeeded to find an administrative course which to work in response to their common state priorities. This mutual optimism towards the present democratic changes can be also recognized by the citizens` strong and clear civil position when asked to share their thoughts about the elections.

From an interview with Gior­gos Gogos, a Greek dock­worker and union leader from the Port of Piraeus, it becomes clear that the Greek nation accepts with great enthusiasm the Syriza`s victory in the elections and that this affection is also shared by people who are traditionally sympathizing to other parties such as PASOK (social-democratic political party) and New Democracy (liberal – conservative party).

Although the governmental decision for an alliance with ALEN has left at first the Greeks quite sceptical due to their originally traditional and conventional understanding of politics, they continued to be convinced that the left and right ideological positions or political activities do not change the general national course which is namely to straighten the financial condition in Greece.

In spite of the fact that ALEN is following an anti-Troika (a tripartite committee formed by the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank) and an anti-memorandum international political discourse, the Greek citizens have faith in the relations between the nationalists and Syriza mainly due to their coherent character. According to Gogos, Syriza has to remain strong since only through a stable commitment to its pre-elections program it will continue to receive social support and there will be less effective international pressure against it, e.g. the EU, Troika and some Member States.

Social Movements and their Final Democratic Word

In each crisis the welfare states choose a certain political strategy or a sequence of policies which to save and protect their sovereign stability. Here, the notion of choice implies consciousness and the notion of policy implies coherence. Greece made its political choice and although this national decision cannot be stated by many European institutions or agencies as the best alternative while Europe is shaken by intensive acts of terrorism and hate crimes, it should be considered as an actual try for stabilizing the country`s financial condition and responsibility towards the citizens` demands. In this regard, social movements represent effective connective civil structures that sustain actions directed towards other powerful opponents. Although the globalization proposes various cultural, financial and political possibilities for action in many states, civil society and social movements still have the final decision in coordinating their own national governmental course.

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