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television channels, under which all parties would receive 7.5 hours of free airtime on
state channels and 5.5 hours on private channels. Clearly, the main issue was to control
individual candidates and their personal appearances in a bid to ensure that a handful
of popular or ‘telegenic’candidates would not get the ‘lion’s share’of TV coverage.

It is perhaps no coincidence that, in 1996, legislation (law 2429/96) was introduced that
set an upper limit of expenditure on parties’ and candidates’ electoral expenditure.
Attempts to enforce this law during the 1996 parliamentary elections proved flawed,
but were implemented with some amendments in the elections of 2000. As Yannas
notes (2002, p. 79): ‘the law does not place severe limits on party political ads but
prohibits candidates from advertising on radio and television’.

Furthermore, the analysis of political advertisements has shown, as Samaras (1999, p.
201) notes, that the content of Greek ‘polispots’ is ‘organised around party lines. The
leadership appears predominantly in the opponent’s spots and in these cases it
dovetails with statements on the sponsors’ party’. This is because in Greece the new
techniques have been integrated within the existing power structure,despite the rise of
media (Samaras, 2002, p. 168): a power structure that is based on the centrality of
parties rather than on institutions. The major political parties, especially when they
come to office, not only drive the operations of most governmental institutions, but
also influence the developments in most aspects of the social system; from sports and
arts to education and the Church. In Greece, as noted above, this situation is called
kommatikokratia (partytocracy), and highlights the omnipresence of parties in society.
kommaticocratia (partytocracy), and highlights the omnipresence of parties in society.
Although this omnipresence does not make them omnipotent, at this stage the
political parties have been able to adapt themselves to the new communication
environment, having as a main goal the attraction of as many voters they can.This leads
The Professionalisation of Political Communication
us to the next question about the role and effects of opinion polls on the political
parties,at least the leading ones.

THE ROLE AND THE EFFECTS OF THE OPINION POLLS
Opinion polls were used in the past and have increased their presence and role in
Greek politics, especially since the 1990s. Currently, ‘more than 10 Greek polling firms
comprise the Greek Association of Public Opinion and Market Research. Among them
well known polling companies are MRB, V-PRC, Kappa Research, ALKO and Metron
Analysis, to name a few’ (Yannas, 2002, p. 77). Political parties and the media use them
for their own agendas. Greece is not the only country where political parties use their
own polls and their own esoteric interpretations of them, not as a means of getting
objective information but rather as just another weapon in the political campaign.
Usually the Opposition party, using the evidence of the polls, accuses the government
of inefficiency in dealing with the day-to-day problems of the citizens. Politicians also
see the polls as a way to monitor their publicity and, where the results are positive, to
use them as a tool for their own political purposes.

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