Governing the Commons in Exceptional Conditions. the Importance of Socio-Political Leadership in Governing Sustainable Development.

Greece considers the 100 anniversary of the events which led to the disaster of the three millennium old Ionian Communities (Asia Minor) as the dramatic events which shaped her modern identity. The arrivals of almost 1,5 million refugees of Hellenic heritage to the mainland Greece is considered as the birth registry of Modern Greece. The protagonist who gave shape to these socio-political institutions, Refugee Settlement in agro-ecological cooperative schemes, emergency finance for agro-industrial development, all under austerity financial conditions, was the Political Sociologist Alexander Papanastasiou. He acted as a catalyst to the democratic government of Venizelos participating as Minister in his Cabinet. He became twice Prime Minister. His education and leadership skills allowed him to institutionalize an organizational regime which developed cooperation for development combining, an acute crisis, the settlement of refugees, with community development solutions in the manner of cooperatives, founding the Agricultural Bank to combat usury, and setting in place (Thessaloniki) agricultural research and development to develop new seeds, while establishing a unique Import Substitution mechanism to finance all these, as credit was not available (The Papanastasiou-Koryzis Model). The role of social-scientific applications in the administration of this dramatic social crisis in Greece was key. Clientelism and similar problems, which defined the political situation in the country, were put aside and emergency governance, based on the ethics of cooperation and scientific applications, under endogenous community development reformed, the Public Interest. The paper focuses on this unique moment of Greek socio-political history to illustrate that the present Greek crisis may need such leadership skills and intervention to get the country out of the acute social crisis it is found in at present. The complexity of these forgotten policy needs to be considered when dealing with current Greek and similar challenges in sustaining agro-ecological socio-political development issues.