When we young people talk to our elders about politics, we often hear that the era of great leaders is over. This view originates when modern political times are compared with past political erass when people identified more with political parties and were much more engaged in public affairs. So, I ask: are great leaders really missing from current political life, or is this a misconception of older generations?
From a psychological perspective, nostalgic feelings towards older eras and their politicians are to be expected. Greece, which has been tormented by an economic crisis, is past its golden age. Thus, the combination of positive feelings for the glorious past and the nostalgia that people feel for their youth, is expected to lead to the idealization of that era and its leaders. Of course, this idealization also has to do with the maturity with which each era is experienced. People who went through the transition to democracy (1974) at a young age saw leaders much older than than them achieve a successful transition of the country to Democracy. These people, however, are now of the same age as current-day politicians, leading to the former humanising (instead of idealising) the latter.
However, leaving psychology aside, it is very useful to consider the characteristics of each era. The era of the great leaders was very different from the current one. It was a time of great political instability and the atmosphere was explosive. Considering the period after the military coup's end, the slogan at the time was “Karamanlis or tanks” and then the big bet was the change brought about by Andreas Papandreou and PASOK. At these two very pivotal points in history, it is obvious that these two men had to face situations in which they had to show the full arsenal of their leadership skills. Therefore, the fact that they and some subsequent leaders are highly regarded, when current politicians are not, is perhaps a good thing, because it reminds us that our era is a time of social stability and not division.
Of course, while social tensions may have died down, Greece still suffers from a plethora of problems. A key example is the economic crisis. This was the eventuality of a situation that we had swept under the rug. The economy imploded along with the 2008 economic crisis and many of the subsequent governments were undermined, some rightly so while others not so much. Thus, despite the mitigating factors of the pre-existence of the crisis beforehand and the fact that lenders were disproportionately cruel towards Greece, domestic politics was radically degraded in the eyes of the people. This led to the devaluation of the role of politics in society and, above all, the standing of politicians in the modern world. If we combine this with the fact that Greece's membership in supranational organizations (EU and NATO) and the financial crisis allow for much less freedom of initiative, then current-day's politicans ability to appear as leaders is clearly being limited.
So, is the era of great leaders over? Not at all. The 50-year course of the post-coup era has shaken things up so much that it is neither fair nor useful to compare politicians from different eras. Therefore, a rethinking of what leadership means in modern-day Greece is needed. The politicians of our time are serving a society that is increasingly escaping ideological divisions (left - right) while instead demanding the effectiveness of political leadership in solving its problems. Beyond problem-solving, however, future leaders owe a great debt to the country, and that is for Greece to escape the low-expectations mindset and return to optimism. Those who bring back optimism and civic participation will be the leaders we need.
