ut of little administrative significance. There are 51 primary administrative units. Within each province there are municipalities and smaller communes, each with elected officials. However, the central government continues to wield strong influence even at the local government level (Shinn, 1985, xx).
The election of June 1989 created a stand-off between the major players in Greek politics. New Democracy finished first in the popular vote, but in part because of a change in the system of proportional representation the party failed to obtain a majority of seats. The Panhellenic party lost the election, and the two major Communist groups finished better than expected and more than doubled their former representation. The government that was then formed was an unusual conservative-leftist coalition which included a Eurocommunist as justice minister and an independent socialist as interior minister. All participants indicated that their main objective would be to pave the way for the indictment of those involved in wrongdoing under the Papandreou administration. The Greek economy is faced with severe inflationary pressures that must also be brought under control by the new government, and these pressures are by far the highest within the European Community (Banks, 1990, 245-248).
The Greek press is a highly politicized institution. Elements of the press actively compete for readership and often do so in a highly sensationalistic and partisan manner. The state had a monopoly on radio and television until 1987, and since that time the number of independent radio and television stations and channels has increased rapidly. Censorship is prohibited by the constitution, as are all other governmental practices that would hinder the freedom of the press. However, the final vestiges of press restriction were removed only in August 1994, which was 50 years after restrictions were imposed by the Metaxas dictatorship (Curtis, 1994, ...