Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T17:27:01.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Patterns of covert politics in post-independence Cyprus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Paul Sant Cassia
Get access

Extract

If proverbs are sociologically significant the one quoted encapsulates the theme of this paper: the extreme fluidity and uncertainty of post-Independence Greek Cypriot politics; the tension between individual strategies and collective action in Greek culture; secrecy, and the use of violence for political purposes (what Aristotle had called stasis). In this paper I want to examine the patterns of covert politics in Cyprus by tracing the evolution of the cultural phenomenon of omadhes (small secret groups of armed men activated for political purposes), and examining their relationship to political parties. Although there has been some literature on omadhes (Loizos, 1975; Markides 1977) I shall offer a different interpretation to Loizos who sees them merely as ‘action sets’ by showing that they became something more substantial and were strongly influenced by the overall political framework within which they operated; I shall also take a different line to Markides who treats them as an expression of discontent.

Type
Overt and Covert Politics: clients, factieux, brigands
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , May 1983 , pp. 115 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allum, P., Review of Caciagli, M., Democrazia Christiana e Potere net Mezzogiorno (1977), ap. Mediterranean Studies, IX, n° I edited by Boswell, D. (Malta, University Press, 1980).Google Scholar
Almond, G. and Powell, G., Comparative Politics, a developmental approach (Boston, Little and Brown, 1966).Google Scholar
Attalides, M., Cyprus: nationalism and international politics (Edinburgh, Queen's Press, 1979).Google Scholar
Bailey, F., The definition of factionalism, in Silverman, M. and Salisbury, R. (eds), A House Divided? (Newfoundland, Institute of Social and Economics Research, 1977).Google Scholar
Bailey, F., Tertius Gaudens et Tertius Numen, in Barth, F. (ed.), Scale and Social Organization (Oslo, J. Grieg, 1978).Google Scholar
Black Michaud, J., Feuding Societies (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1975).Google Scholar
Block, A., Mafia and class struggle as contrasting factors in Sicilian latifundism, Archives européennes de sociologie, X (1969), 95–116.Google Scholar
Boissevain, J., Saints and Fireworks: religion and politics in rural Malta (London, Athlone Press, 1965).Google Scholar
Boissevain, J., The place of non-groups in the social sciences, Man (n.s.), III (1968), 542–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boissevain, J., Of men and marbles, in Silverman, M. and Salisbury, R. (eds), A House Divided ? (Newfoundland, Institute of Social and Economics Research, 1977).Google Scholar
Brass, P., Factional Politics in an Indian State (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1965).Google Scholar
Caciagli, M. et al. , Democrazia Christiana e Potere nel Mezzogiorno (RiminiFirenze, Guaraldi, 1977).Google Scholar
Cohen, A., The politics of ritual secrecy, Man (n.s.), VI (1971), 427–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawshaw, N., The Cyprus Revolt (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1978).Google Scholar
Fishman, M., Language and nationbuilding, in Whitely, W. H. (ed.), Language Use and Social Change (Oxford, IAI, 1971).Google Scholar
Foley, C. (ed.), Memoirs of General Georges Grivas (London, Longmans, 1964).Google Scholar
Gellner, E., Saints of the Atlas (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969).Google Scholar
Gellner, , Muslim Society (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981).Google Scholar
Grivas-Dighenis, G., Eoka Kai andarto polemo (Athens 1961).Google Scholar
Loizos, P., The Greek Gift: politics in a Greek Cypriot village (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1975).Google Scholar
Markides, K., The Rise and Fall of the Cyprus Republic (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1977).Google Scholar
Marx, E., The Social Context of Violent Behaviour (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976).Google Scholar
Mayer, A., The significance of quasigroups in the study of complex societies, in Banton, M. (ed.), The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies (London, Tavistock, 1966).Google Scholar
Micaud, C., Tunisia: the politics of modernization (London, Pall Mall, 1964).Google Scholar
Moore, C. H., Tunisia since Independence. The dynamics of one-party Government (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1965).Google Scholar
Nicolas, R., Factions: a comparative analysis, in Banton, M. (ed.), Political Systems and the Distribution of Power (London, ASA Monograph, 2, 1965).Google Scholar
Papadimitris, P., Istorikhe Enkyklopediatys Kyprou (Nicosia 1978–1980).Google Scholar
Parisi, A. and Pasquino, G., Changes in Italian electoral behaviour, in Tarrow, S. and Lange, P. (eds), Italy in Transition (London, Frank Cass, 1980).Google Scholar
Pasquino, G., Italian Christian Democracy. A Party of all seasons ? in Tarrow, S. and Langs, P. (eds), Italy in Transition.Google Scholar
Peters, E., Introduction to Michaud, J. Black, Feuding Societies (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1975).Google Scholar
Sant Cassia, P., The archbishop in the beleagured city: an analysis of the conflicting roles and political oratory of Makarios, Modern Greek and Byzantines Studies, IX (1983), forthcoming.Google Scholar
Sartori, G., Parties and Party Systems (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1976).Google Scholar
Schneider, P., Coalition formation and colonialism in Sicily, Archives européennes de sociologie, XIII (1972), 255–67.Google Scholar
Silverman, S., Patronage as myth, in Gellner, E. and WAterbury, J. (eds), Patrons and Clients (London, Duckworth, 1977).Google Scholar
Simmel, G., The Sociology of G. Simmel, edited and translated by Wolff, R. (Toronto, Collier-Macmillan, 1950).Google Scholar
Wade, R., The base of a ‘centrifugal demcoracy’, in Boissevain, J. and Friedl, J., Beyond the Community (The Hague, D.E.S., 1975).Google Scholar
Wheeler, M., Aristotle's analysis of the nature of political struggle, in Barnes, J., Schofield, M. and Sorabji, R. (eds), Articles on Aristotle (London, Duckworth, 1977).Google Scholar
White, C., Patrons and Partisans (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1980).Google Scholar