The Change of Greek Asministrative Practice within the Context of European Integration.

Due to historical and sociopolitical factors the achievement of democracy in Greece has lasted for a period of one century and a half. The institutions of the Greek State and administration have been imported but not embedded in the newly born, still premodern, country, during the 19th century. However, it took almost the 2/3 of the 20th century, that is until the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974, that democracy has been finally stabilized. The effort to establish the rule of Law in Greece seems connected to the social and political strive to participate in the E.U. The European integration project has been considered as a process of social change in order to achieve a higher status of economical and political development. At first the present paper will focus at the theoretical discussion regarding the relation between law and social change. It will also describe the recent theoretical debate which consider the process of European integration as a complex process of social change. Secondly the present paper will examine the social representations regarding law in general and especially European law as an instrument of changing the administrative practices p.e. through institutions such as the Greek Ombudsman. Finally, it will describe the latest activity of the Greek Ombudsman and it will discuss its possible interactive effect on Greek administrative practice ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]