Abstract
Since the establishment of Greek nation state in the early 19th century, and after the fall of the Communities 'autonomies' which were part of the administrative structure of the Ottoman Empire, the local government was a field of political experiments for a long time, as the main point was not, as reasonably would assume a reader, the consecration and development of the institution. The successive internal and external conflicts and crises which had to be faced by the newly created state, supported the request for a strong interventionist state that would ensure national unity at inland and decent national presence external. Therefore, a number of organizational, administrative and financial options were selected but as implied, were not in favor of the development of a modern local government. Another important feature of the Greek State, was the premature development of parliamentarism and democratic political institutions in general, which spun off its historical course, ...
Since the establishment of Greek nation state in the early 19th century, and after the fall of the Communities 'autonomies' which were part of the administrative structure of the Ottoman Empire, the local government was a field of political experiments for a long time, as the main point was not, as reasonably would assume a reader, the consecration and development of the institution. The successive internal and external conflicts and crises which had to be faced by the newly created state, supported the request for a strong interventionist state that would ensure national unity at inland and decent national presence external. Therefore, a number of organizational, administrative and financial options were selected but as implied, were not in favor of the development of a modern local government. Another important feature of the Greek State, was the premature development of parliamentarism and democratic political institutions in general, which spun off its historical course, against the other Balkan states. Under these circumstances, the local government played a major role as it acted as political activists emergence tank with strong influence in our country's political life. Indeed, the process of local government is a fact that, in many cases, influenced and stamped the broader political and party developments. Therefore, during the period that administrative centralism was flourished, always under centralization bond of our political and party system, an informal but powerful influence of local political leaders in decision-making was developing. Under this light, it would be preposterous especially in our country, to consider the local government as a purely administrative institution, without investigating its association with the political system. Here rests a first basic assumption of this thesis which decisively influenced the directions and choices of the writer, who set as target through this work to capture the strict correlation between the government of our country and the political and party developments, affecting and be affected by them. Specific objectives were to identify the components and shapes, channels, routes and variations, changes and iterations of this relationship throughout the course of their historical path until today. Another critical factor that determines the course of local government in our country, is the orientation of the institution to European standards and examples, which gradually adapted to domestic socio-economic conditions and traditions, to the point of alienation or to falsify. A second basic assumption of this study, was the influence of French standards on our administrative organization. This influence is evident until today because our country continues to be classified as "Napoleonic" state, known for centralization and interventionism. So, the aim of the writer was to fix these long western European influences, recruitment mode and their adaptation to our country and their outcomes. During the period of political changeover, especially since the accession of Greece to the European Economic Community, the administrative and political characteristics of the Greek government began to heavily influenced by the processes of European integration. Meanwhile, all those successive reforms that were promoted in Greece during the last decades, despite the importance in terms of domestic developments and dynamics, are the outcome of the adaptation pressures, due to the participation of our country in the European project. This relation between local government and European integration is the third key challenge of this thesis, which aims to detect its characteristics using the comparative method, in such a way that specifies perspectives of the institution within the wider European structure, in a period when the dilemma 'deepening or retreat "of integration is set more dramatically than ever. During the preparation of this thesis, the methodology that was used, involved the simultaneous study of the evolution of the political system and the government, and is an attempt by the writer, to demonstrate the interaction of these two institutions at specific periods of time. Except from the use of the existing relevant Greek and foreign-language literature and studies, a significant contribution to the drawing of this study was the exchange of opinions and experiences with both colleagues (past and present) in Greek Public Administration and Government as well as my European colleagues, a fact that facilitated my participation in the European Union Committee of the Regions. The current thesis has a preface, an introduction, and a main body which is developed in two parts and six chapters in total, and ends up with conclusions and the presentation of Greek and foreign literature.
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