Skip to main content
Log in

Austerity politics and administrative reform: The Eurozone crisis and its impact upon Greek public administration

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

Greece was the first European Monetary Union (EMU) country to sign a Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) with the European Commission (EC) and the European Central Bank (ECB) in order to secure financial assistance and prevent a total collapse of its economy following the severe international economic crisis. The MEFP (2010) and the more detailed Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality (SEPC) (2010) offered elaborate steps of structural reforms that have affected all public services in Greece. The lack of major results and the stickiness of the ‘Greek problem’ have made Greece a unique case study for evaluating both the recipe of the international lenders and the domestic capacity for reform. A historical institutionalist approach and the concept of ‘policy paradigm’ are combined here in order to evaluate what the conditions for a major administrative reform in time of crisis are. The article focuses on the specific attempt to reform public administration during the Papandreou government in order to analyse the importance of both time and type of change in the success of a major reform programme.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andreou, G. (2006) EU cohesion policy in Greece: Patterns of governance and Europeanization. South European Society and Politics 11 (2): 241–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bulmer, S. and Burch, M. (1998) Organizing for Europe: Whitehall, the British state and European Union. Public Administration 76 (4): 601–628.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capano, G. (2003) Administrative traditions and policy change: When policy paradigms matter. The case of Italian administrative reform during the 1990s. Public Administration 81 (4): 781–801.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cerny, P. (2010) Rethinking World Politics: A Theory of Transnational Neopluralism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • European Commission (EC) (2010a) The Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece. Occasional Papers 77, May 2010.

  • European Commission (EC) (2010b) The Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece, Interim Review. Athens, 14–17 June.

  • European Commission (EC) (2010c) The Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece. First Review – Summer 2010. Occasional Papers 68, August.

  • European Commission (EC) (2010d) The Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece. Second Review – Autumn 2010. Occasional Papers 72, December 2010.

  • European Commission (EC) (2011a) The Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece, Third Review – Winter 2011. Occasional Papers 77, February 2011.

  • European Commission (EC) (2011b) The Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece, Fourth Review – Spring 2011. Occasional Papers 82, July 2011.

  • European Commission (EC) (2011c) The Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece, Fifth Review – October 2011. Occasional Papers 87.

  • Explanatory Report (2011) [Explanatory Report of the Draft Law Medium-Term Fiscal Strategy 2012–15]. Hellenic Republic.

  • Featherstone, K. (2003) Greece and EMU: Between external empowerment and domestic vulnerability. Journal of Common Market Studies 41 (5): 923–940.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Featherstone, K. (2005) Introduction: ‘Modernization’ and the structural constraints of Greek politics. West European Politics 28 (2): 223–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Featherstone, K. (2011) The Greek sovereign debt crisis and the EMU: A failing state in a skewed regime. Journal of Common Market Studies 49 (2): 193–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Featherstone, K. and Papadimitriou, D. (2008) The Limits of Europeanization. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, P. (1993) Policy paradigms, social learning, and the state: The case of economic policymaking in Britain. Comparative Politics 25 (3): 275–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hay, C. and Wincott, D. (1998) Structure, agency and historical institutionalism. Political Studies XLVI: 951–957.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howlett, M. and Ramesh, M. (1998) Policy subsystem configurations and policy change. Operationalising the post-positivist analysis of the politics of the policy process. Policy Studies Journal 26 (3): 466–481.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • http://diavgeia.gov.gr/en, accessed 22 June 2011.

  • http://kallikratis.ypes.gr/, accessed 22 June 2011.

  • http://www.opengov.gr/ypoian/, accessed 21 June 2011.

  • Kovaios, A. (2010) The legion of the foreigners. To Vima, 14 August.

  • Ladi, S. (2007) [Europeanization and public policy reform: The case of Greek environmental policy]. [Greek Political Science Review] 29: 40–60.

  • Ladi, S. (2011) Policy change and soft Europeanization: The transfer of the Ombudsman institution to Greece, Cyprus and Malta. Public Administration 89 (4): 1643–1663.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Law Gazette no. 784(4/6/10) Hellenic Republic.

  • Law Gazette no. 138(16/6/11) Hellenic Republic.

  • Law Gazette no. 204/A(15/9/11) Hellenic Republic.

  • Law Gazette no. 226(27/10/11) Hellenic Republic.

  • Law Gazette no. 34/A (23/2/12) Hellenic Republic.

  • Levi, M. (1997) A model, a method, and a map: rational choice in comparative and historical analysis. In: M. Lichbach and A. Zuckerman (eds.) Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 19–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP). (2010) Greece, 3 May.

  • Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality (SEPC). (2010a) Greece, 3 May.

  • Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality (SEPC). (2010b) Ireland, 3 December.

  • Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality (SEPC). (2011) Portugal, 3 May.

  • Ministry of Administrative Reform and Electronic Governance (MAREG). (2012) White Paper on Governance. http://www.opengov.gr/minreform/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/01/lefki_vivlos.pdf.

  • Monastiriotis, V. and Antoniades, A. (2009) ‘Reform that! Greece’s Failing Reform Technology: Beyond “Vested Interests” and “Political Exchange” ’, GreeSE Paper No 28, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.

  • OECD (2011) Greece: Review of the Central Administration (OECD Public Governance Reviews, Paris: OECD Publishing.

  • Ongaro, E. (2009) Public Management Reform and Modernization. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pagoulatos, G. (2003) Greece’s New Political Economy. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Paraskevopoulos, Ch. (2001) Social capital, learning and EU regional policy networks: Evidence from Greece. Government and Opposition 36 (2): 253–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • PASOK (2009) PASOK Election Programme. Athens: PASOK.

  • Pierson, P. (2000) Increasing returns, path dependence, and the study of politics. The American Political Science Review 94 (2): 251–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierson, P. (2004) Politics in Time. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier, P. and Jenkins-Smith, H. (eds.) (1993) Policy Change and Learning. An Advocacy Coalition Approach. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sotiropoulos, D. (2007) . [State and Reform in Contemporary South Europe] Athens, Greece: Potamos.

  • Spanou, C. (1996) On the regulatory capacity of the Greek state. A tentative approach based on a case-study. International Review of Administrative Sciences 62 (2): 219–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spanou, C. (1998) European integration in administrative terms: A framework for analysis and the Greek case. Journal of European Public Policy 5 (3): 467–484.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spanou, C. (2001) [Greek Administration and European Integration] Athens, Greece: Papazisis.

  • Spanou, C. (2008) State reform in Greece: Responding to old and new challenges. International Journal of Public Sector Management 21 (2): 150–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thelen, K. (1999) Historical institutionalism in comparative politics. Annual Review of Political Science 2: 369–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thelen, K. (2003) How institutions evolve. In: J. Mahoney and D. Rueschemeyer (eds.) Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 208–240.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Interviews

  • Interview with a Consultant of the Vice President of the Hellenic Government, Athens, 1/4/11.

  • Interview with the Chair of the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government (EKDDA), Athens, 2/4/11.

  • Interview with the Greek Ombudsman, Athens, 5/4/11.

  • Interview with high-ranking official of the Ministry of the Interior, Athens, 7/4/11.

  • Interview with the Chair of the Public Servants Trade Union (ADEDY), Athens, 21/4/11.

Download references

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Vassilis Monastiriotis and the participants of the Greek Politics Specialist Group International Conference, The Politics of Extreme Austerity: Greece Beyond the Crisis, Glasgow, 8–9 December 2011, for their comments. An earlier draft of this article has been published as GreeceSE Paper No. 57 at the Hellenic Observatory, LSE in April 2012.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ladi, S. Austerity politics and administrative reform: The Eurozone crisis and its impact upon Greek public administration. Comp Eur Polit 12, 184–208 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2012.46

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2012.46

Keywords

Navigation