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POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AND PROFESSIONALISATION IN GREECE | 133

opinion. Papandreou, who claimed to have a legacy of promoting and discussing ‘e-
democracy’ issues, (proved to an extent by his initiatives during the Greek EU
presidency), heavily linked new technologies with his general campaign theme,
participatory democracy. The campaign included the publication of a candidate web
site (separate from the party web site) that featured many of the items available to
citizens in American candidate websites: a web log (with no means to actually discuss
entries), curriculum, speeches and information, campaign gatherings and rallies. To
complement this web presence, PASOK published two websites featuring on-line polls
on political issues, including education, the budget, and immigration policy. New
Democracy followed with nd.gr. It is important to mention that both parties failed to
really harmonise their web presence with the rest of the campaign, showing once again
that campaigning is not wholly slick and professionalised.

The above examples confirm a significant change during the campaigning, and the role
of television as the main medium for campaigning. Data on the distribution of funds to
television and the other media shows that it has become a major recipient of campaign
funds. Television share accounted for around 85% of expenditure during the last four
elections. Compared with 1990, television has become the dominant recipient of
campaign monies and investments, while newspaper advertising in campaign
expenditure has significantly decreased. For example, in the 1990 elections, when
private TV had just started, television absorbed 46.4% and 6.7% of the advertising
budget of New Democracy and PASOK respectively (Yannas, 2002, p. 77). In fact, the
substantial growth of campaign funds allocated to television largely accounts for the
significant rise in total electoral expenses during the last decade. Rising television
expenditure is perhaps the best symbol of the shift in Greek politics from campaigns
traditionally based on efforts made by party organisations and prospective deputies to
more professional mass media centred practices.

There is no doubt that, since the 1990s, election campaigning in Greece has become
more modern and more professional, and communication practices may have come to
play an important role. But it is uncertain to what extent these professional
communication practices have come to dominate the development of political parties,
or whether they only make sense in the context of the development of the political Political Communication and Professionalisation in Greece
parties themselves. First of all, the evolution from a party-centred system to a
candidate-centred system has not yet materialised in Greece, although the
campaigning is indeed focused on the parties’ leaders’ images. This is because the
parties have maintained the dominance over individual MPs, while the party leader
personalises the party (Samaras, 2002, p. 167). For example, up to 1996, political talk
shows during the election campaign period were more or less unregulated. In the 1996
elections, the main preoccupation of the political parties was the ‘quest for the magic
formula’that would secure all candidates and political parties equal time and access on
TV, including talk shows, without upsetting the ratings of private channels. The
discussions between the parties produced a set of guidelines for both state and private 135