ABSTRACT
On the national level, the passage from traditional to more centralised forms of clientelistic politics meant also that the party leader, much more so than during the previous period, acquired a mass following which, especially in the urban centres, was no longer directly related to clientelistic networks. For, before PASOK, among bourgeois parties it was not often easy (especially at lower administrative levels) to distinguish with precision political friends from political foes. If one now looks at PASOK’s attitude to trade unions, for instance, one finds again both positive and negative elements – in so far as the state-civil society issue is concerned. On the one hand PASOK has contributed decisively to the strengthening and growth of the trade union movement by such measures as the encouragement of trade union organisation at the factory level. If however PASOK’s organisational strength creates risks in the sphere of state-civil society relationships, it also creates great opportunities.
