https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 20 Apr 2020 16:39:18 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 https://toarcheio.org/items/how-the-european-debt-crisis-reshaped-national-political-space-the-case-of-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:34 +0000 http://arc.local/items/how-the-european-debt-crisis-reshaped-national-political-space-the-case-of-greece/ Continued]]> Where some authors saw a limited impact of Europeanisation on national party politics, others proposed that in addition to the pre-existing economic left-right dimension a separate European Union dimension structures the national political space. This article looks at the Greek bail-out during the European sovereign debt crisis to examine how Europeanisation can change the national political space. The bail-out came with memoranda that set the main lines of Greek economic policy for the coming years. Accepting these policies was connected with remaining in the Eurozone. This restructured the political space: the economic and European integration form one dimension. A second relevant dimension focuses on cultural issues. The economic/European dimension is a stronger predictor of vote choice than the cultural dimension.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/impacts-of-local-government-reforms-in-greece-an-interim-assessment/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:10 +0000 http://arc.local/items/impacts-of-local-government-reforms-in-greece-an-interim-assessment/ Continued]]> Successive waves of local government reforms (territorial and functional) in Greece have depended on factors highlighted in this paper, which focuses on ‘institutional evaluation’ and the achievement or failure of institutional change. Furthermore, ‘performance evaluation’ of institutional change is also attempted, based on dimensions/indicators concerning output legitimacy, coordination/steering and input legitimacy. The paper consists of three parts. The first part deals with decentralisation reform during the period 1981–1995, when the need to transfer competence to local government and broaden the latter’s legitimacy predominated. The second part concerns the evaluation of territorial reform orientation and its shift towards efficiency priorities within the framework of Europeanisation (1996–2000). The third part considers the strategic priorities of the current third wave of reform. Finally, a comparative evaluation and conclusions are formulated. During the first wave of local government reform (1981–1995), input legitimacy proved to be particularly strong. On the other hand, coordination and steering proved to be particularly weak, while output legitimacy, especially concerning efficiency, was not a major priority. In comparison with the previous reform, the second wave (1996–2000) scores much better in terms of output legitimacy and coordination/steering, while input legitimacy became weaker. The scope and strategic priorities of the current reform procedure seem intended to tackle deficiencies left over from previous reforms. Worth mentioning are the major reform concerns with efficiency, coordination, transparency, control and accountability deficits. However, the final outcome is still open to conjecture, given the current acute fiscal crisis and the question of consensus building.

]]>