A thread that runs through modern Greek history, from the beginning of the Revolution to the present day, is the "conflict of completions." A continuous clash of priorities between the objectives and needs of national/territorial completion, institutional/constitutional completion, and economic/developmental, as well as fiscal completion.

The interpretive framework of the "conflict of completions" is complemented by two side elements of the trajectory of the Greek state during its two hundred years of existence. The first consists of the coexistence of two opposing "complexes" that are permanently embedded in the mentality and self-perception of Greek society despite the impressive changes occurring successively in its composition and in the level of institutional and economic development of the country.

On one hand, there is the "complex of typological inferiority," and on the other hand, the "complex of temperament superiority" in relation to the countries of the European center. These are the countries that constitute the European norm, with Greece always being an exception that turns into a theory and certainly into an ideology of "Greek exceptionalism."

The second element is the "national ambivalence" between the West and the East, which allows many to believe or at least claim that, precisely because of this ambivalence or its dual aspect, Greece is entitled to deviate or delay in relation to the European standard.