Nikiforos Diamandouros

Diamandouros (Greek Νικηφόρος Π. Διαμαντούρος, born June 25, 1942 in Athens ) is a Greek sociologist and historian. Since 2003 he has been European Ombudsman.

Biography

Diamandouros studied political science at Indiana University and Columbia University, where he reached the degrees of Master of Arts (1965) and a Masters in Philosophy ( 1969) and received his doctorate in 1972. Teaching at the State University of New York and Columbia University followed. From 1980 to 1983 he was Director of Development at Athens College in Athens, and then program director of the Social Science Research Council in New York. 1988 to 1991 he was Director of the Greek Institute for International and Strategic Studies in Athens. After various offices in 1993 he became professor at the University of Athens.

1992 to 1998 he was President of the Hellenic Association of Political Science.

From 1998 to 2003 he was the first National Ombudsman of Greece.

2003 Diamandouros by the European Parliament as European Ombudsman for the remainder of the period 1999 - elected in 2004, beginning of 2005 and 2010 he was re-elected for five years.

Diamandouros is the author of numerous writings on the politics and history of Greece, Southern and South-Eastern Europe, in particular on democratization, the process of formation of nation-states and the relationships between culture and politics.

Writings (selection )

• Political modernization, social conflict and cultural cleavage in the formation of the modern Greek state, 1821-1828, (PhD thesis 1972, Columbia)
• Hellenism and the first Greek war of liberation: (1821 - 1830); continuity and change, Thessaloniki 1976 (eds, )
• A bibliographical essay on southern Europe and its recent transition to political democracy, Fiesole 1986
• Parties, politics, and democracy in the new Southern Europe, Baltimore 2001
• Πολιτισμικός δυισμός και πολιτική αλλαγή στην Ελλάδα της μεταπολίτευσης Politismikos duismos ke stin Ellada tis politiki allagi metapolitevsis ( biculturalism and political change in Greece, the democratic transition ) Alexandria 2002
• Οι απαρχές της συγκρότησης σύγχρονου κράτους στην Ελλάδα 1821-1828 I aparches tis stin Ellada synkrotisis Synchronou Kratous 1821 - 1828, 2002 ( The beginnings of the formation of the modern Greek state ), Athens 2002
• Η Ελλάδα της μετανάστευσης Κοινωνική συμμετοχή, δικαιώματα και ιδιότητα του πολίτη I Ellada tis metanastevseis: cinema niki symmetochi, dikeomata ke tou idiotita political ( The Greece of democratic change, social participation, fundamental rights and civil liberties ), 2004 ISBN 9789602183885