The ruralist path of the 4th August regime: associative and agrarian policy of the Metaxas’ dictatorship (1936-1941)

Abstract

Our objective in this paper is to look into the development of the collective forms of organisation in the Greek rural space during the dictatorship of Metaxas (1936-1941). More specifically, we will examine the way in which the 4th of August regime tried to incorporate the existing collective organisations in the context of the prevailing agrarian policy. prior to the analysis of the initiatives taken by the metaxist dictatorship, we will present the associative policy of the Greek governments between 1922 and 1936. Beyond the associative policy, we will explore the evolution of the agrarian policy focusing especially on its interconnection with the emergence of a ruralist discourse. In our analysis of both the associative policy and the ruralist ideology we will try to register the Greek case in the wider context of the authoritarian regimes established in many countries during the interwar period.