International elites during crisis and the quest for Democracy: A case study of the interventions of international elites to the function of the Greek state

The Third Greek Republic, since 1974, has been characterized by stability both in a socioeconomic and a political level. The voting of the first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in May 2010 signaled the beginning of a complete new era in Greece. The dysfunctional characteristics of the Greek economy during the specific period (bureaucracy, clientelism, lack of investments, tax evasion, corruption), as well as the excessive debt, led to the implementation of austerity policies, under the directions and the supervision of the EU, the ECB and the IMF. These elitist institutions have extended their presence in various aspects of the internal Greek political life, by articulating “discourses of intervention” to the Greek political reality. The current paper aims at exploring the rationale of the interventions on behalf of international elites, by taking into consideration contemporary elite theories focusing on their attitudes during crisis periods. Among others, a number of issues are closely related within the specific framework, like the breaking of the traditional bonds between national and international elites, the emergence of a considerable democratic deficit through the intervention of international elites in domestic issues and decision making processes, as well as a further empowerment of the cooperation between different categories of elites (i.e. political, economic). Under this rationale we seek to examine in which ways and to what extend do the international elites intervene to the internal political life of Greece, according to their publicly articulated discourse, as it is presented by the Greek media. This main research aim can be further analyzed in the following research questions: 1. Do the international elites express their opinion or make direct recommendations on issues having to do with legislative procedures and the decision making process of the Greek state? 2. Do the international elites express their opinion or make direct recommendations on issues having to do with the implementation of internal Greek policies? 3. To what extent does the political discourse of international elites aim at enhancing or undermining specific political powers? 4. Is there a commonly accepted framework on behalf of international elites regarding the Greek crisis? 5. Are the interventions of international elites related only to issues connected with the implementation of the MoUs and the MTFs? For the scopes of the current research we are going to conduct a quantitative content analysis. The analysis will be conducted in the political discourse of international elites in the TV news bulletins of two Greek TV stations (the private ALPHA, and the public ERT). Our research covers the periods before the conduction of the elections of 25th of January 2015 (ten days before the elections) as well as the period from the declaration of the Greek Referendum (27h of June 2015) until the Eurogroup of the 13th of July 2015, which signaled the adoption of the third MoU.