Panos Koliastasis - The Permanent Campaign Strategy of Greek Prime Ministers (1996–2011)

Various academic authors have analyzed the implementation and impact of the permanent campaign strategy by political executives in presidential and parliamentary systems, notably the United States and United Kingdom. This study builds on this research and applies it to the case of three recent Greek Prime Ministers. In particular, the study addresses three questions. First, did contemporary Greek Prime Ministers adopt the permanent campaign strategy? Second, why did they do so? Third, what impact did the implementation of the permanent campaign have on their public approval? The research focuses on the cases of three successive Prime Ministers in Greece: Kostas Simitis (1996–2004), Kostas Karamanlis (2004–2009) and George Papandreou (2009-2011). Simitis and Papandreou came from the centre-left Pasok, while Karamanlis was from the centre-right New Democracy.

The analysis suggests that in a political, economic, social and media context that favours the use of sophisticated political communication techniques, all three Prime Ministers undertook the permanent campaign strategy in order to maintain public approval. They established new communication units within the prime ministerial apparatus, consulted with communication professionals to form a coherent communication strategy, used private polling to shape political strategy, policy and presentation, promoted their political messages in an attempt to impose their own agenda-setting and issue-framing and made public appearances to woo public opinion. However, results indicate that the impact of the permanent campaign on their prime ministerial approval was weak. Prime ministerial public appearances hardly affected the popularity ratings of these three Greek executive leaders.