Hellenic Observatory – To Archeio

Greece’s New Emigration at Times of Crisis

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:42 +0000

Although considerable research is being carried out on the phenomenon of immigration to Greece, there is a notable lack of scientific attention on the recent resurgence of emigration at times of recession and austerity. Aiming to partly fill in this gap, this paper contextualizes the recent resurgence of emigration within Greece’s changing and complexifying migratory landscape. In so doing, and drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, the paper describes the magnitude, dynamics and main destinations of the current crisis-driven emigration and outlines its demographics makeup. It further provides evidence on the multiplicity of migration trajectories and discusses the prospect of return and the potential of the development of transnational economic ties between Greece and its highly skilled emigrants.

Crisis social policy and social justice: the case of Greece

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:22 +0000

This paper explores the potential contribution of social justice and social policy for an equitable recovery from the crisis in the case of Greece. The first part discusses some theoretical dimensions of social justice focusing on its interrelation with social policy. Social justice is a contested theoretical concept in social and political theory, and a powerful but elusive term in social policy. The second part identifies the stark injustices in the Greek social policy arena, as well as the discontinuities of this ‘paradigm’ with the theoretical discourse provided in the first part. It is shown that the key elements of social justice do not inform social policy reform in times of crisis, and that the embedded political and economic deficit reinforces the uneven impact on the Greek society. The latter are predetermined by a sociopolitical culture based on clientelism, individualism and favouritism, and prescribed in the anti-social international ‘rescue plan’. The paper argues for a crisis social policy inspired by social justice and proposes a ‘distributive escape’ from the Greek deadlock, which entails a new sustainable social policy system, incorporating citizenship rights with basic welfare provisions; redistribution of resources and nurturing communitarian values.

Famine, Suicide, and Photovoltaics: Narratives of the Greek Crisis

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:19 +0000

Policy Implementation and Political Trust: Greece in the Age of Austerity

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:12 +0000

Why did the Greek Socialist government consistently fail to faithfully implement the bailout reforms between 2010 and 2011 despite strong international and European pressures? Building on the top-down implementation framwork by Mazmanian and Sabatier, we argue political trust underpins the government’s implementation track record. We use a simple game of insecure contracts to find lower levels of trust can exacerbate macroeconomic conditions creating a vicious cycle of non-cooperation and economic recession. Our findings have policy implications on administrative efforts to tackle the sovereign debt problem and offer amendments to theories of implementation and institutional rational choice. Implementation failure and responsibility drift may be explained by the (in)ability to generate long-term political trust in repeated iterations among implementation partners.

From Indecision to Fast-track Privatisations: Can Greece Still Do It?

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:09 +0000

This paper explains how the collapse of growth after 2008, in combination with soaring public and external deficits, led to the escalation of Greek debt, while the government’s delay in responding to the crisis increased the cost of borrowing and necessitated the bail-out agreement with the IMF and the European Union. One year later, Greece is struggling to harness fiscal deficits amidst a deep recession and rising social tension. Debt sustainability has not yet been ensured and another tranche of loans has been negotiated under new terms and conditions, including higher taxes and extensive privatisations of public companies and property. The paper discusses the main failures of the bail-out agreement and why the lack of growth so far has undermined efforts at stabilisation. As an alternative, the paper suggests that with a modest return to growth, combined with fast-track privatisations, the prospects of debt sustainability improve substantially. In light of the recent debate on the European Stability Mechanism, the paper suggests that the bail-out facility should avoid the debt seniority condition, so that Greece could return to normal market borrowing after 2013 without raising new fears of ‘haircuts’ on private sector obligations