The contemporary decentralization trend in a number of South European states has been an object of scientific research on numerous occasions. By focusing on the analysis and interpretation of decentralization in Greece, in the post-dictatorial period (1974-1989), a country on which no previous similar research has been undertaken, this study broadens the research area and contributes to the wider debate about the nature of "Central-Local Relations". The analysis of centralization and decentralization tendencies in the Modern Greek State, of the role of Greek local government in politics and public administration and the overview of the related institutional reforms provide the background of the research and show the limitations of approaches which focus on the institutional characteristics in explaining policy changes. An inter-organizational framework of analysis is adopted to explain the nature, timing and evolution of the decentralization reforms. Decentralization is seen as the product of relationships between organizations, entailing the redistribution of resources and the change of rules governing the interactions between central and local government. The politics of decentralization are thus examined under the framework of the relations of political parties, viewed as organizations, with local government. The varying degree of dependence on local government organizations, of political parties in opposition and in government is investigated in the light of the internal dynamics of the party organizations and the scope and intensity of party competition in the related issues. Furthermore, it is shown that these processes of intra and inter-organizational change in political parties have significantly influenced the contents of decentralization policies, their timing and introduction and the growing consensus on decentralization during the period under examination. Intergovernmental relations is the framework of analysis which further interprets the policy process of decentralization. The complex set of power-dependence relationships between central government, the different organizations of the state apparatus and local government explain the formulation and implementation of the decentralization reforms. Two powerful and contradictory influences are examined: those of the bureaucracy tending to hinder and delay the implementation of reforms affecting its power; and those of the professionals within or at the side of government and administration, tending to produce the fragmentation of both central and local government by birth and development of new types of organizations, which by pass bureaucratic routes of communication and exchange. The synthesis of the above-mentioned influences has caused significant alterations in the pattern of intergovernmental relations, which will in turn affect the further process of decentralization in Greece.