The slippery road to neoconservatism
When the Greek people gave their mandate for reforms in 2004, the government failed to take action. Now, in 2007, after Greeks voted more conservatively, the government has started visibly regressing. The first sign of this retrogression is the withdrawal of a controversial sixth-grade history textbook. Unfortunately similar moves are likely to follow. It is quite possible that the government will embark on a neoconservative course because it will be obliged to promote other policies seen to be necessary. These developments are not only the result of pressure from the right, including the extreme right-wing LAOS party that has just entered Parliament. The government will also be obliged to take certain urgently needed economic measures. In the absence of the public tolerance enjoyed by the government during its first term, the promotion of these painful reforms will cause social tensions. The government will undoubtedly lose supporters among the electorate – a fact it will try to hide by «flying the flag.» We already saw a precursor to this during election rallies when Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called on supporters to leave behind party banners and «raise the Greek flag.» The use of nationalism to push through policies is a key element of neoconservatism. It has been a particularly common phenomenon in the USA for the past seven years. And, if we are to judge from the response to this summer’s fatal forest fires, it seems that certain government officials have been studying the tactics of President George Bush’s administration and are trying to apply them here. Although Greece’s performance in crisis management was woefully farcical (Karamanlis donned a winter jacket in the middle of summer for one televised appearance), our country would probably have greater success in imitating neoconservative policies – after all, there is fertile ground for them to thrive. Greece does not have America’s sturdy tradition of political neoliberalism and does not need a disaster of the magnitude of the September 11 attacks in order to push through such policies. In any case, Greeks are scared enough without the specter of Osama Bin Laden hanging over them. The sense of an ever-present threat to their language, history and territorial integrity has long been cultivated in their psyches. It is clear then that the government is heading toward neoconservatism. It will easily take root in a country like Greece. The government will follow policies which appear economically liberal – and the waste of public money will not be reduced but rather remanaged. However, in the long term, such logic and policies give rise to greater security needs and, consequently, greater expenditures.
