The name is absent

93

These three examples demonstrate new modes of activism based on emerging
political subjectivities, modes of social capacity-building based on intersubjective
networks∕rhizomatic aggregation, and the civil publics they create and become part of.
This is not to say that groups like these did not exist before, but rather that they are
becoming more common, remain informal and often evanescent, are attentive to
conditions and discourses of interest to a more critical and translocally connected
subjectivity, and are coming to have more serious political implications. Consider, for
example, that civil public-based groups are having a delegitimizing affect on the
established civil society. Greek civil society has been dominated by the state since the
late 1970s; a reality which, since the end of the 2004 Olympics, became increasingly
obvious, more frustrating, and more disheartening to local people. Through the granting
of selective state loans, licenses, concessions, jobs, and by way of party-led labor
organizations and professional organizations, Greek political parties have maintained
control over activist groups of various kinds. In fact, Greek civil society can be
considered arms-length formal publics of political parties (see Sotiropoulos 2004).
Needless to say, this has contributed to the continued weakness of this sector
(Diamandouros 1991; Lyrintzis 2002; Makrydemetris 2002; Mavrogordatos 1993;
Mouzelis 2002:238-245) and to popular frustration and disillusionment (Makrydemetris
2002; Mouzelis & Pagoulatos 2005)⁹² especially as the issues these groups support are
coming to be increasingly defined by state-level political wrangling rather than the

⁹² Of note, some have argued that two enclaves of strong civil society have existed in Greece since their
inception: associations of liberal professionals, and trade unions of the wider public sector (Sotiropoulos &
Bourikos 2002). However, my field research indicates that corruption both within these organizations and
within the government nonetheless ensures their close political and ideological alignment even if they are
officially uninvolved with each other.

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