ABSTRACT
In organisational terms, the Greek socialist and labour movement was slow to develop, and when it did it remained less effective and (in political terms, at least) more marginal than its counterparts elsewhere in Europe. The party’s role and ideology thus came to be heavily influenced by the Russian Revolution, whilst its long-term performance was buttressed by the sudden influx to urban centres of one and a half million ‘dispossessed’ refugees from Asia Minor following the 1922 ‘national disaster’. PASOK as a political party has shown a capacity for change, and since the time of its original creation it has emitted contradictory signals to its observers. After the 1977 elections, when the number of PASOK deputies increased from 12 to 93, Papandreou succeeded in placing the parliamentary group under the formal control of the party’s Executive Committee, in order to maintain discipline.
