Party factionalism in new small southern European democracies: Some comparative findings from the Portuguese and Greek experiences (1974–82)

This is a study of how factionalism affected the stabilization of new small southern European democracies during the period of transition from authoritarian dictatorship to democracy. The cases of Portugal and Greece help us to identify these new democracies as patrimonialist in nature. Democratic transitions were dominated by former codes of behaviour and political learning. This suggests that the creation of the new modern party structures does not always bring the emergence of modern politics. Instead of factionalism, it seems that personalism became more evident and dominant both inside and outside the parties. Nevertheless, the effort to build up strong party organizations has brought a qualitative change in modern southern European politics and it may be hoped that individualist strategies, within the parties and beyond them, will be gradually replaced by more collective ones. The creation of strong party structures should be seen as a collective effort, which raises the threshold for possible party factions to leave the party. As a consequence, dissent and factionalism become routinized and internalized in party structures.