UNIVERSITY OF THESSALY
2nd International Conference on Economic and Social History
"Markets" and Politics
Private interests and public authority (18th-20th centuries)
Volos, 10-12 February 2012
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Abstracts
- Katerina Papakonstantinou & Ilias Bissias Interest groups and politics: ship-owners and political power in Greece in the 1960’s and 1970’s
In the paper we will examine the interrelations between members of the ship-owners’ community and the political elite in Greece during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Immediately after the Second World War most Greek ship-owners moved their operational headquarters to the USA and Great Britain and preferred registering their ships under foreign flags. The relationship between the Greek governments and the ship-owners’ world were mediocre if not troublesome at times, yet again some considerable political efforts were developed and adopted in the 1950s in order to strengthen the Greek flag and attract more vessels in the Greek Register of ships.
A series of laws in the late 60s had as a pivotal goal the ‘repatriation’ of ship and proved successful as many Ship-owners not only showed their preference for the newly redesigned Greek Ship register but repatriated their headquarters to Piraeus. In this respect the Greek governments aimed to attract part of the enormous -for national standards- maritime income to the Greek treasury; on their side Greek ship-owners faced new challenges in a somewhat hostile environment thus developing new strategies and tactics that were initiated after careful planning. The gradual return of important ship-owners to Piraeus in the beginning of the 1970s redeveloped and strengthened the until then troublesome municipality as a major maritime center.
We will research the strategies and tactics followed by Greek ship-owners in order to negotiate and gain economic and political security, stability and tolerance in their homeland. The attempts of most Ship-owners to adapt to the new political and economic environment that were formed after the collapse of the junta in 1974 were reflected in the political efforts made by Union of Greek Ship-owners to improve their public image and to win the press’ sympathy, especially in the late 1970s. It was an effort that reshaped past ideologies and communication practices and allowed them to abandon their bunker mentality in previous decades especially towards notions such as extroversion and openness.
