Lessons from 50 years of democracy
Countries learn from their history, past and present, in order to move forward with the necessary wisdom and appreciation for what has gone right and willingness to correct what has gone wrong.
The last 50 years have been extraordinary for Greece in so many ways. The political, economic and social changes have been immense, despite the many deficiencies and mistakes.
With that in mind Kathimerini is taking the initiative to organize – along with the National Bank Cultural Foundation (MIET), the Delphi Forum, and the Hellenic Observatory at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – a conference on the 50th anniversary of the restoration of democracy in Greece.
The gathering, which will take place next month in Athens, aims at being more than just another conference, but rather an intellectual exercise that contributes in a substantive way to creating a better country.
The participation of most leading figures in the country’s political world, from the president of the republic to a number of prime ministers, including the present one and most of his living predecessors, will allow for a healthy self-evaluation, and should act as part of building a more robust democracy for the next 50 years and beyond.
The conference, titled “50 Years of the Metapolitefsi: The Accomplishments and Shortcomings of the Third Hellenic Republic,” aims at offering insights into how this period evolved and how it aligns with the bicentenary of the modern Greek state.
Often ideologically motivated analyses tend to be too positive with certain aspects, periods or even leaders, and dismissive of others. An in-depth search by the objective observer will, needless to say, come up with a more complex picture. It is this fuller, and at the end of the day, more representative, account of these last 50 years that the conference aims to bring to the forefront.
Lessons and conclusions are most useful when they are implemented with an eye to the future. In that context the conference will also address the most important reforms still pending in the country.
