THE GREEK POLITICAL ELITE AND THE EUROPEAN IDENTITY: IMPACT OF THE DEBT CRISIS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY ESRA ÇENGEL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN EUROPEAN STUDIES SEPTEMBER 2018 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Tülin Gençöz Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgehan Şenyuva Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuba Ünlü Bilgiç Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sevilay KAHRAMAN (METU, IR) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuba ÜNLÜ BİLGİÇ (METU, IR) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gözde YILMAZ (Atılım Uni., IR) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : ESRA ÇENGEL Signature : iii ABSTRACT THE GREEK POLITICAL ELITE AND THE EUROPEAN IDENTITY: IMPACT OF THE DEBT CRISIS Çengel, Esra M.S., Department of European Studies Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuba Ünlü Bilgiç September 2018, 181 pages This thesis aims to analyze the possible impact of the 2008 Greek Debt Crisis on the Greek elites’ perception of belonging to the European identity. It will argue that the 2008 Debt Crisis has negatively affected the Greek elites’ perception of identity. It is assumed that this negative change has been reflected in their discourses throughout the crisis. Therefore, this thesis will try to demonstrate the change through discourse analysis of the political elites’ speeches from 2002 to 2015. In doing so, it will test some major premises of Constructivism. The thesis first examines the European identity as a form of collective identity. Then, it focuses on evolution of the crisis with special emphasis on the Greece’s ongoing Europeanization process. Lastly, speeches of the Greek political elite are analyzed with broader references to the nature of European identity and Greek self-perception of Europeanness. Keywords: The Greek Political Elite, 2008 Debt Crisis, European Identity, Discourse Analysis, Identity Change iv ÖZ YUNAN SİYASİ ELİTİ VE AVRUPA KİMLİĞİ: BORÇ KRİZİNİN ETKİSİ Çengel, Esra Yüksek Lisans, Avrupa Çalışmaları Bölümü Tez Danışmanı: Doç. Dr. Tuba Ünlü Bilgiç Eylül 2018, 181 sayfa Bu tez 2008 Yunanistan borç krizinin, Yunan siyasi elitinin Avrupa kimliğine ait olma algısı üzerinde oluşturduğu olası etkiyi araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu bağlamda borç krizinin Yunan siyasi elitinin Avrupa kimlik algısını olumsuz etkilediği öne sürülmektedir. Bu olası değişim, Yunan siyasi elitinin 2002 ve 2015 yılları arasındaki konuşmalarına söylem analizi yöntemi uygulanması yoluyla gösterilmeye çalışılacaktır. Bu şekilde Yapısalcılığın bazı temel önermelerini test edecektir oluşturmaktadır. Bu tez kapsamında ilk olarak, bir toplumsal kimlik türü olarak Avrupa kimliği incelenecektir. Sonrasında, Yunanistan’ın halen devam eden Avrupalılaşma süreci ve krizin gelişim sürecine vurgu yapılarak borç krizi ele alınacaktır. Son aşamada Yunan siyasi elitinin bahsedilen dönem aralığında yaptığı konuşmalar teorik çerçeve, Avrupa kimliğinin özellikleri ve Yunanistan’ın kendine özgü Avrupalı tanımı çerçevesinde analiz edilecektir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Yunan Siyasi Eliti, 2008 Borç Krizi, Avrupa Kimliği, Söylem Analizi, Kimlik Değişimi v To all who inspires me vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express his deepest gratitude to her supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuba Ünlü Bilgiç for her guidance, advice, criticism, encouragements and insight throughout the research. Without her support it would not be possible to get through this research. The author would also like to thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sevilay Kahraman and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gözde Yılmaz for their suggestions and comments. The author would like to thank her family for their unconditional love. They were always supportive whenever she feels desperate and in need. Also, she would like to express her deepest love to her dog Luna as a dear member of family. She always made her happy and relaxed when this thesis did not appear to finish at any time soon. The author would also like to thank her colleagues at Ondokuz Mayis University for their support, patience and encouragements. vii TABLE OF CONTENT PLAGIARISM ............................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iv ÖZ ................................................................................................................................. v DEDICATION ............................................................................................................ vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... xii LIST OF GRAPHS.................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 1.1. General Description of the Problematique ..................................................... 1 1.2. Methodology ................................................................................................... 3 1.3. Outline of the Thesis ....................................................................................... 4 2. METHODOLODY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................ 6 2.1. Methodology ................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1. Case Selection ..................................................................................... 12 2.1.2. Data Sampling .................................................................................... 12 2.2. Theoretical Framework of the Thesis ........................................................... 17 3. EUROPEAN IDENTITY ..................................................................................... 23 3.1. The Concept of ‘Identity’ .............................................................................. 24 3.2. Social Identity ............................................................................................... 26 3.3. Development of the Idea of Europe from Antiquity to the Modernity ......... 29 3.4. European Identity .......................................................................................... 34 3.4.1. Historical Cultural European Identity ................................................. 35 viii 3.4.2. Political-Legal European Identity ....................................................... 38 3.4.3. Social European Identity .................................................................... 39 3.4.4. European Post-Identity Commonness ................................................ 46 3.4.5. International European Identity .......................................................... 48 3.5. European Elite Identity ................................................................................. 50 3.6. Making the EU Real: EU’s Symbols of Identity .......................................... 53 3.6.1. Euro as Identity Marker of the EU ..................................................... 55 3.6.2. European Citizenship .......................................................................... 56 3.7. Identity Change ............................................................................................. 59 4. THE GREEK DEBT CRISIS ............................................................................... 64 4.1. 20th Century Developments in Greek Political Life ................................... 65 4.2. Modernization of Greece through the Europeanization ............................. 70 4.3. The Impact of the EU Membership on Greece ........................................... 73 4.4. Economic Outlook of Greece before the Crisis .......................................... 79 4.5. The Timeline of the Greek Debt Crisis ....................................................... 82 4.6. The Impact of the Crisis with Numbers ...................................................... 89 5. ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................... 94 5.1. Method .......................................................................................................... 94 5.1.1. Visualization ....................................................................................... 96 5.2. Findings and Analysis ................................................................................... 97 5.2.1. Europeanness of Greek Political Elites until the Beginning of the Crisis (2002-2009) ......................................................................................