Greek political parties in this era, as previously, did not possess ideological or political policies, nor did they represent social classes. They were personal parties that nurtured patron-client relationships with the electoral body.

More specifically, as suggested by G.Th. Mavrogordatos, they must be perceived as possessing four components. The first concerns the quality of party leadership, the charisma or absence of charisma in the leading figure of the party. The second element concerns the networks of patron-client relationships that linked the politicians with their constituents, structured at the level of constituency as a pyramid with the politician on its peak, the local agents-party agents in between and the constituents at the base. The third element concerns the bloc consciousness, that is, the ties of solidarity between party supporters and an awareness of distinguishing between 'us' and 'them. Such an awareness was based on joint comradeship but also on joint confrontation of opponents and aggression of others which, in a climate of polarization, as the period of the Schism was, had taken the form of ruthless persecutions, violence and even physical elimination. The last element concerns social contrasts of the kind that bring social classes into opposition, but mostly of social groups of a different kind, in the framework of the same social class or in wider formations.
In this period both natives (inhabitants of the New Territories, later refugees as well) and inter-class coalitions found themselves in opposite camps in respect of party allegiance.
The features of parties of principle and class parties also began to form.