Relying on Stop-gap Measures: Coping with Unemployment in Greece

Abstract

This article seeks to explain why, despite unprecedented post-war levels of unemployment and extremely ungenerous unemployment benefits, unemployment has not been a major issue of concern for the average Greek voter. It argues that the quid pro quo relations inherent in both Greek political clientelism as well as in personal familism have protected most Greeks - even those in the highest-risk categories - against the negative consequences of unemployment by informally institutionalizing a number of stop-gap measures. But, just as unemployment has reached critical levels, these traditional stop-gap measures are beginning to disappear. The unemployed in Greece will no longer be able to rely on the informal coping mechanisms which have compensated for shortages of public social welfare for so long. As a result, the effects of unemployment are likely to be felt by more Greeks in a more intensified manner in the future