Fueling the party machine: Evidence from Greece during Metapolitefsi

Since Portugal’s “Carnation Revolution” of 1974, numerous countries around the world have undergone some form of democratic transition in a political phenomenon that has been identified by Huntington (1993) as the “third wave” of democratization. Although the outcome was consolidated for many of these “new democracies”, significant challenges have arisen due to the large structural changes accompanying the political regime change. One such challenge is the absence of strong checks and balances that allow political actors to influence how the bureaucratic apparatus functions. Consequently, many studies examine the possibility of policy manipulation by the incumbent for political economy reasons. This paper focuses on Greece after the restoration of democracy in 1974 to examine (i) the possibility of party favoritism in the allocation of intergovernmental transfers and (ii) the role of state resources in local party building.