From independence to the present day, what have our politicians asserted about the state, the system of governance, and human rights, and how have intellectuals commented on their views? There are 17 and 16 portraits respectively, with the addition of a constitutional law expert, who is fascinated by politics and history. The politicians include… Ioannis Kapodistrias, Charilaos Trikoupis, George I, Eleftherios Venizelos, George Papandreou, Konstantinos Karamanlis, Konstantinos Tsatsos, Stefanos Manos, Alexandros Papannastasiou, Andreas Papandreou, Kostas Simitis, Pantelis Pouliopoulos, Ilias Iliou, Mikis Theodorakis, Kostas Filinis, Leonidas Kyrkos, Alexis Tsipras. …and the intellectuals N.N. Saripolos, George Theotokas, Roddis Roufos, Phaidon Vegleris, Aristovoulos Manesis, George Koumantos, Leon Karapanagiotis, Alexandros Svolos, Dimitris Tsatsos, Tasos Giannitsis, Alexis Dimaras, Nikos Themelis, Nikos Poulantzas, Nikos Svoronos, Michel Miaïg, Anna Fragoudaki.

As an eyewitness and occasionally a participant in our political developments from the Metapolitefsi to the present, I have often had the opportunity to ascertain how ambivalent the relationship of most of our politicians is with the Constitution, the law, and the institutions. It is a love relationship when they are far from power and a relationship of hatred from the moment they seize it.

Based on their stance towards the institutions, I classified the "portrayed" politicians of "mine" into three categories: the pragmatists, the demagogues, and the dreamers. It is up to the reader to determine which of these three descriptors fits each "portrayed" individual best. From my perspective, I categorized the studied politicians according to their philosophical-political orientation into one of the three main ideological traditions of modern and contemporary Greece: the bourgeois, the social-democratic, and the communist.

Each of these three traditions had its intellectuals, who not only contemplated power but often became "passionate" about it. For most of them – professional publicists and not only – its management was the subject of their science. For others, it was a challenge with which, wanting to participate in public affairs, they did not shy away from confronting. Their placement in this book next to the politicians with whom they predominantly interacted I believe completes the picture, providing the ideological framework within which both operated.

The portraits of both were accompanied by some of my earlier texts, in which, prompted by various incidents, I had the opportunity to examine related issues from the more specialized perspective of my field.

Nikos K. Alivizatos is a professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Athens and a lawyer. He was born in Athens in 1949 but hails from Kefalonia and Chios.

His publications include: The Political Institutions in Crisis. Aspects of the Greek Experience (3rd ed., Themelio, 1996), State and Radio-Television. The Institutional Dimension (Ant. Sakoulas, 1986), The Constitutional Status of the Armed Forces (Ant. Sakoulas, 1987/1992), The Royal Property in Strasbourg (Ant. Sakoulas, 2003), and Beyond 16. The Before and After (Metaichmio, 2007).

His books published by POLIS also include: What Democracy for Greece After the Crisis? (2013) The Constitution and Its Enemies (2011) The Uncertain Modernization (2001). He actively practices law at the Council of State and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.