Patterns of renewal and continuity in parliamentary elites. The Greek MPs from 1996 to 2015

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on patterns of renewal and continuity in the Greek Parliament. The data include information about MPs from the parliamentary elections in 1996 through to 2015. Three main concerns are discussed: patterns of circulation of newcomers MPs; patterns of parliamentary turnover in respect to political and electoral transformations introduced by the debt crisis; and patterns of continuity for long-standing MPs. I argue that incoming MPs tend to replicate the mainstream educational and political resources of the core parliamentarians and, at the same time, powerful patterns of perpetuation exist, which sustain the career opportunities of the long-standing MPs. However, a parliamentary turnover is possible during times of crises but also through the renewal of political generations.

KEYWORDS:

• Renewal
• circulation of political elites
• MPs
• political elites
• debt crisis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Fani Kountouri is an Assistant Professor in Political Science-Political Communication at the Department of Political Science & History, University of Panteion, Athens. She has a doctor's degree in Political Science from the University Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne. She has been a research assistant at the National Centre of Social Research in Athens. Her work focuses on political parties and political elites, communication strategies and media content.

Notes

1. The database on the Greek Parliamentarians was elaborated by a research group and carried out by the National Center of Social Research (EKKE) in Athens. Members of the team were M. Kakepaki, St. Skrinis, K. Pieridis, F. Kountouri. The DB in English is available here http://www.socioscope.gr/?lang=en#datasets/deputies.

2. The Hellenic Parliamentary Republic has a Parliament of 300 elected seats determined by constituency voting for party lists, and voters may select the candidate (s) of their choice by marking their name on the party ballot. MPs are elected for a four-year term by a system of ‘reinforced’ proportional representation in 56 constituencies, 48 of which are multi-seat and 8 single seats. 288 seats stem out from the 56 constituency and 12 from one multi-member nationwide constituency ‘state deputies. The 12 ‘state deputies’ are nominated by the most successful parties and elected according to a party-list proportional representation system, the whole country then being regarded as one constituency. Remaining seats after this distribution are allocated in 13 principal electoral districts according to the same system.