Between Political Liberalism and Dictatorship: Military Intervention and the Crisis of Hegemony in Interwar Greece

This talk examines the crisis of political liberalism in interwar Greece by analyzing the recurrent intervention of the military in politics as a structural consequence of the failure to establish a durable bourgeois hegemony after 1916, with particular emphasis on the Second Hellenic Republic (1924–1935). It argues that the frequent military interventions in the political scene of the period were not an episodic disruption of an otherwise functioning parliamentary order, but rather conceptualizes the army as a structural political actor within a fragile liberal regime.

Speaker Bio: George Souvlis completed his PhD at the European University Institute (Department of History and Civilization) in Florence. He has taught courses in modern and contemporary Greek and European history and sociology at Democritus University of Thrace (2019–2020) and the University of Ioannina (2020–2023). Since 2025, he has been a researcher in the ERC Starting Grant project STEXEU — The Constitutional Road to Dictatorship: States of Exception and Authoritarianism in Europe, 1900–1939, coordinated by Arturo Zoffmann Rodríguez at the Institute of Contemporary History (IHC), NOVA University Lisbon, and funded by the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant, Grant Agreement No. 101163723).

His research interests lie in the fields of fascist studies, intellectual history, and historical sociology. His most recent publications include the books and edited volumes Voices on the Left (2019), Back to the ’30s? Crisis, Repetition, and Transition in the 20th and 21st Centuries (co-edited with J. Rayner, S. Falls, and T. Nelms, 2020), The Normalization of Far-Right Discourse in Greece (co-edited with R. Vasilaki, 2021), the special issue Re-assessing the Metaxas Dictatorship (1936–1941): Greek Fascism or Old-Style Authoritarianism? (Fascism, 11(2), 2022; co-edited with A. Kallis), Radical Journalism (co-edited with S. Farrell and E. Siapera, 2023), Duty to Revolt: Transnational and Commemorative Aspects of Revolution (co-edited with A. Karatzogianni, 2023), The Alternative Right in Greece (2025), and Politics of Liberation: Conversations with Theory and History (co-edited with R. Vasilaki, 2025). He has also published articles in journals including Praksis, Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies, Práticas da História, and Critical Education.

Hosted By: Center for Hellenic Studies Program