Change and Continuity: Comparing the Metaxas Dictatorship and the Colonels’ Junta in Greece

Abstract: A comparison between the two dictatorships of Greece in the twentieth century (the 4th of August regime of 1936 – 41 and the Colonels’ dictatorship of 1967 – 74) cannot be fruitful if it is static. One cannot understand the nature of these two regimes without studying the years that separated them. This period oscillated between Venizelism and anti-Venizelism and was characterized by the ideological struggle between capitalism and communism of the Cold War prior to the restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974. A look at these years reveals interesting insights into the legacies and the continuities of Greek society in the twentieth century.