The Constantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy is the official think-tank of the Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 conservative New Democracy

New Democracy (Greece)

New Democracy is the main centre-right political party and one of the two major parties in Greece. It was founded in 1974 by Konstantinos Karamanlis and formed the first cabinet of the Third Hellenic Republic...

 (ND) party, and named after the party's founder, Constantine Karamanlis

Constantine Karamanlis

Konstantínos G. Karamanlís , commonly anglicised to Constantine Karamanlis or Caramanlis, was a four-time Prime Minister, the 3rd and 5th President of the Third Hellenic Republic and a towering figure of Greek politics whose political career spanned much of the latter half of the 20th century.-...

. It was founded in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 in January 1998 with the aim of promoting the principles of liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...

 and the open market

Open market

The term open market is used generally to refer to a situation close to free trade and in a more specific technical sense to interbank trade in securities.-Use of the term in economic theory:...

 in the context of a modern welfare state

Welfare state

A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...

. It is structured in five departments (International Cooperation, Publications, Policy Studies, Political Analysis and Political Academy). Apart from Athens, the Institute operates offices in four large Greek cities (Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

, Patras

Patras

Patras , ) is Greece's third largest urban area and the regional capital of West Greece, located in northern Peloponnese, 215 kilometers west of Athens...

, Ioannina

Ioannina

Ioannina , often called Jannena within Greece, is the largest city of Epirus, north-western Greece, with a population of 70,203 . It lies at an elevation of approximately 500 meters above sea level, on the western shore of lake Pamvotis . It is located within the Ioannina municipality, and is the...

, and Agrinio

Agrinio

Agrinion is the largest city and municipality of the Aetolia-Acarnania peripheral unit of Greece, with 96,321 inhabitants. It is the economical center of Aetolia-Acarnania, although its capital is the town of Mesolonghi. The settlement dates back to ancient times...

), as well as an international office in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, at the headquarters of the European People’s Party.

Current structure

Chairman

• Ioannis M. Varvitsiotis
  Ioannis Varvitsiotis
  Ioannis Varvitsiotis is a Greek politician and Member of the European Parliament for New Democracy from 2004–2009, part of the European People's Party. He didn't stand for reelection in the European elections, 2009. He was also previously a defense minister of Greece.-References:...
  
  , Member of the European Parliament, former Minister of Defence

Director General

• Constantine Arvanitopoulos, Professor of International Relations, Panteion University
  Panteion University
  The Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences , usually referred to simply as the Panteion University, is a university located in Athens, Greece...
  
  

Department Directors

• Political Analysis: Constantine Arvanitopoulos, Professor, Panteion University
• Political Academy: Menelaos Daskalakis
• Publications & Research Programmes: Konstantina E. Botsiou, Associate Professor, University of the Peloponnese
• International Cooperation: Nikolaos Tzifakis, Lecturer, University of the Peloponnese
• Policy Studies: Angelos Themelis