The method behind George’s madness

One of the most striking moments in Giorgos Papandreou’s vote of confidence apologia last night was his effort to justify the proposed bailout referendum on the grounds that it represented, in his mind, an attempt to change the way politics is done in Greece, to move the country from its ‘Byzantine tradition’ of murky deals done behind closed doors without the involvement of the citizenry to the ‘Athenian tradition’ of direct democracy.

Now, of course, one could argue that it’s a funny time for Papandreou to have decided that he wants to be Pericles and we won’t go into his sincerity and the other, colder political calculations that contributed to the ill-fated referendum plan; but if we consider the prime minister’s ‘Athens-Byzantium’ dichotomy alongside the RIEAS analysis – which emphasises the influence of the Scandinavian democratic model on Papandreou – and this piece by Anthony Barnett – which reminds us of Papandreou, the man behind the Symi symposia – then we begin to see that there is a certain method to George’s madness.