ABSTRACT
The Cold War in Greece was a period of major sociopolitical changes. The end of the Second World War introduced a new global geopolitical reality marked by the military competition between the two superpowers – the United States and the Soviet Union – and the division of the world between two broad ideological blocs – liberal capitalism and communism. Against the backdrop of a hybrid democratic process and the intense ideological polarization, the Greek economy grew rapidly during the 1950s and 1960s, achieving one of the highest rates of GDP growth in Europe, averaging 7 percent. Already from the late 1950s, political pressures to the system to liberalize were evident. The 1967 coup can be seen as the radical redistribution of political power within the “Triarchy” in favor of the military. The collapse of the military regime in 1974 marked a new beginning for Greek politics and society, known as metapolitefsi (regime change).
