ABSTRACT
Nea Democratia (New Democracy, ND) was fouoded by Konstantinos Karamaolis shortly after the transition of Greece to democracy in July 197 4, and became the standard bearer of Greek liberal conservatism. Although the party drew on an old party lineage originating from the interwar years, Karamanlis tried to give it a modern image--and one uotainted by past political struggles--so as to render it fitter for the new political conditions. In the first democratic elections in November 1974, with the majority of the population still excited by the uoexpected change of regime, but also confident about the way Karamanlis was almost single-handedly managing the transition, ND received an impressive 54.3 per cent of the national vote. The party would remain in power for the next seven years, during which it completed the consolidation of democracy and the accession of the couotry into the European Community (January 1981). Meanwhile, in May 1980, Karamanlis was elected head of state, and his positions of prime minister and ND party leader were filled by Georgios
Rallis, a moderate liberal politician. Under Rallis, the electoral decline of ND, which had become evident in the 1977 elections, continued to the advantage of the rapidly ascending socialist PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement), which eventually triumphed in the elections of 1981, thus relegating ND to the opposition.
