Images of protest marches and violent riots in Paris and Athens have flooded our screens in Europe. First come massive strikes and protests, followed by violent clashes between the protestors and the authorities. In France the strike and protests are over proposed pension reforms that seek to extend the age of retirement, and in Greece over the tragic train crash that killed over 50 people.
As a Greek national living in France, and as a political scientist, it saddens me. I love Athens and Paris, both cities have played a major part of my life, and have moulded who I am.
The images of riots remind me of a discussion some years ago in Cardiff at a university conference on civil disobedience, and how usually it springs from a questioning of the legitimacy of the state. In Greece and France to question the legitimacy of the state is historical and culturally ingrained. Violent demonstrations are a norm in the culture of civil disobedience in these two democracies. Rioting in France and Greece reflect Newton’s third rule of action and reaction. Nothing can be taken for granted in western democracies, especially in Greece and France. Things can change from one minute to the next, confirming Winston Churchill’s assertion that “democracy is the worst form of government that has ever been tried.”
Civil disobedience is ingrained in the political culture of France and Greece, as both as modern nations were born of violent revolution. Rioting explicitly expresses the behaviour of a (smaller) segment of the public fuelled by the frustration and conviction of the larger disaffected public that talking has failed, or that it yields nothing.
In France, political parties were not permitted until 1901, due to the so-called Le Chapelier law of 1793. So, there was no political party based conduit between people and the government. Civil disobedience marked the 1781 Paris Commune, and the May 1968 students’ movement. In Greece, the September 3, 1830 revolution brought the establishment of a national constitution and rioting was part and parcel of the discourse between state and the people. The most famous and effective protest and violent being the 1974 Polytechnic School of Athens students’ movement, which toppled the Colonels’ Junta of 1967-1974. Of course the violence in this case was initiated by the dictatorship that the students opposed, nevertheless from then on, protest and violence came to characterise much of the interaction between disaffected Greek publics and the state.
Another similarity between Paris and Athens is that strikes, protests and riots are performed in locations with major symbolic meaning, like the main square in Athens, Constitution Square, (Syntagma Sq), and the Bastille Square in Paris. These locations are selected due to their function as historic landmarks imprinted on the collective political subconscious memory of both nations’ citizens. They are chosen spontaneously regardless of the cause, and as spaces they symbolise a sort of legitimacy for the protest, in the face of public opinion.
From a different angle, violent (over)reactions seem to many of the readers in Australia, and the Anglosphere as incompatible with democracy where everyone expresses themselves freely and has the right to agree and disagree. In Greece and France especially where the freedom of speech is taken very seriously by all, where parliaments spend days and nights debating and examining each topic, and media provide real information, in real time and great analysis. Blogs and websites enable the circulation of diverse perspectives and ideas, and civic organisations such as NGOs add to the exchange of ideas.
However, in France and Greece – as well as in other Western democracies – there is the growing perception that ‘the people’s voices’ are not being heard, or if they are heard, they’re not listened to by the state. That perception is coupled with the idea, (in part reality), at that those nations’ elites are totally disconnected from the daily problems and the priorities of ordinary people.
I have always loved the Swiss model of conducting referendums that give the people direct ability to approve or reject idea. The success of referendums in Switzerland though reflects a balance between German, Italian and French speaking cantons and traditions. It is a different political history and tradition born in large part around the avoidance of civic conflict, through negotiation and compromise as a key tenet.
It is doubtful that referendums in France or Greece work, or that they could end the culture of civil disobedience that is so deeply ingrained.
Each country’s politics are distinct, with varied written and unwritten norms, and checks and balances, beginning with the various voting systems and the peculiarities in electoral behaviour, at the local and national levels.
Finally, as a Paris and Athens lover, I hope that one day a new means of expressing civil disobedience may emerge in Greece and France, that allows people to express themselves passionately and freely and without all too regular resort to violence at the end of a protest. This is the kind of utopia I hope to see one day.
Dr George Tassiopoulos is a Greek French political scientist, with a doctorate in political science from the University of East Paris. He was born in Athens, and has lived in France for the past 20 years where he teaches geopolitics in a business school in Paris.
