ABSTRACT
This chapter throws light on the close, but often overlooked connections between economic crisis and party system change, with the aim of highlighting how these impact on one another. It emphasizes not only how economic crisis enacts the dynamics of party system change, but also how the party system itself, through its various incorporative mechanisms, can contribute to the deepening and prolongation of economic crisis. From that point on, Greece's old two-party system began to turn hostage to a minority of floating centrist voters who denied the bulk of right-wing and left-wing citizens any real choice in elections. The first signs of political crisis began to appear shortly after the 2000 election, when ND deputy George Karatzaferis left his party to found the Popular Orthodox Rally. The second aspect of the political crisis of the Greek party system before 2009 was the transformation of PASOK into an ossified 'state party' and the challenge it faced as a result from Syriza.
