Leaders and followers: European pre-understanding and prejudice in the Greek financial crisis

Abstract

Drawing upon the principles of hermeneutics, Intercultural Communication analysts maintain that in meetings between cultures, understanding requires pre-understanding. Hans-Georg Gadamer, a central figure in modern hermeneutics, points out moreover that in the movement toward understanding it may be necessary to provoke an unnoticed prejudice. For as long as our mind is influenced by a prejudice, Gadamer explains, we do not consider it a judgment. This article, through an examination of variations in leadership expectations, attempts to provoke the unnoticed western prejudice that is preventing an effective European pre-understanding of Modern Greece.This prejudice, operating unseen by the West, first produced the Greek financial crisis and now threatens to drive Greece away from taking its rightful place in the European family of nations.