From Stagnation To Forced Adjustment

Ever since Greece's 1974 transition to democracy there has been constant talk of reforms. Major changes in its economy, society, and polity have attempted to bring Greek institutions and policies in line with more developed West European countries. Some reforms have come to fruition, others have recurred over the years, while others have been spasmodic and elusive. This book sets out the background to Greece's current political and economic crisis, examining its three decades of stop-start reforms and their political and institutional consequences.

Ever since Greece's 1974 transition to democracy there has been constant talk of reforms. Major changes in its economy, society, and polity have attempted to bring Greek institutions and policies in line with more developed West European countries. Some reforms have come to fruition, others have recurred over the years, while others have been spasmodic and elusive. This book sets out the background to Greece's current political and economic crisis, examining its three decades of stop-start reforms and their political and institutional consequences.

This volume discusses different aspects of Greece’s political economy during the past decade and reflects on the country’s path ahead, examining the major question: did this challenging period succeed in providing a window of opportunity for deeper institutional and societal change? The authors seek to contribute to the discussion of the dynamics of stability and change, of the nexus between external pressure and domestic agency. Greece offers a most interesting case study, as much in analytical as in empirical terms. Never before did a euro area member require three macroeconomic adjustment programmes under stringent policy conditionality and external supervision. This experience shattered past certainties and reshaped the political landscape. A decade later Greece was starting to recover and received international recognition for its reform efforts. However, the COVID-19 pandemic provided an external shock that risks derailing such achievements. The volume includes chapters by academics and researchers from different professional backgrounds: history, economics, public law, political science, public administration and political economy. Their diverse experience and viewpoints contribute to multidimensional analyses in subject areas such as Greece’s constitutional structure, public sector reforms, labour market developments, China’s expanding investment footprint and product market reforms.

This volume focuses on the aftermath of the euro crisis and whether the reforms have brought about lasting changes to the economic and political structures of the crisis countries or if the changes were short-term and easily abandoned post-bailout and post-recovery. Starting with an analysis of the state of euro area governance at the onset of the crisis and the ensuing reforms, the book considers structural conditions as well as those specific to the domestic political economy of most of the countries affected by the crisis, including Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. It presents up-to-date and incisive analysis of the aftermath of the crisis and suggests how we can situate it within our understanding of different national growth models in Europe. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners interested in the Euro Crisis, Economic and Monetary Union, European Union and European politics and more broadly to Comparative Politics, Political Economy, International Relations, Economics, Finance, Business and Industry.

The Oxford Handbook of Modern Greek Politics is a major new contribution to the study of contemporary European and Greek politics. This edited volume contains 43 chapters written by Greek and foreign academics foremost in their field. After an introductory section, offering a frame of analysis, the volume includes sections on political institutions, traditions and party families, political and social interest groups, policy-making and policy sectors, external relations, and Greece's most important political leaders of the period between the 1974 transition to democracy and today. It will be an invaluable reference for scholars, new and established, as well as for the informed reader around the world. This work offers the most comprehensive approach to the subject to this day. Drawing on data and analysis previously available only in national sources (Greek books, articles, and other primary and secondary sources), in combination with international data, it allows international scholars of politics, international relations, society, and economy to integrate the case of Greece in their own projects; and facilitates the search of any informed reader who seeks a reliable, updated source on Modern Greece.

With its deep economic crisis and dramatic political developments Greece has puzzled Europe and the world. What explains its long-standing problems and its incapacity to reform its economy? Using an analytic narrative and a comparative approach, the book studies the pattern of economic reforms in Greece between 1985 and 2015. It finds that clientelism - the allocation of selective benefits by political actors (patrons) to their supporters (clients) - created a strong policy bias that prevented the country from implementing deep-cutting reforms. The book shows that the clientelist system differs from the general image of interest-group politics and that the typical view of clientelism, as individual exchange between patrons and clients, has not fully captured the wide range and implications of this phenomenon. From this, the author develops a theory on clientelism and policy-making, addressing key questions on the politics of economic reform, government autonomy and party politics. The book is an essential addition to the literatures on clientelism, public choice theory, and comparative political economy. It will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union politics, economic policy and party politics.

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The latest volume of the Political and Military Sociology annual review features empirical research on topics that focus on security, military training, culture, and the challenges of bureaucracy, law, and violence in democracies. The articles cover an impressive geographic range from Europe to Africa and to the Middle East.Two essays address threats to democratic polities by corrupt governmental and legal institutions and by electoral violence and intimidation. The first argues that a culture of "dualism" in Greece helps produce problems. The second analyzes the power of military student fraternities in Nigeria, arguing that democracy is threatened by these organizations.Two contributors then address the security and military challenges in Iraq. The first argues that successful military advisors must play dual roles as both peacekeeper-diplomats and warriors. The second poses that Iraqi government policies privileging the Shia population have alienated other groups?and helped support for groups such as ISIS. The final essay analyzes the acculturation of new soldiers to Zimbabwean military life through the training experiences of recruits.The volume also includes reviews of recent books on military and security matters.