The Greek Referendum on Bailouts 2015

Abstract

In the Greek referendum on bailouts of 2015 the only winner was populism, with democracy and the referendum itself being the big losers, proving that the end result of populist responses to what is perceived as a ‘democratic deficit’ can only be a trivialisation of democracy itself. Not only did the SYRIZA-ANEL Government exhibit no prudence in the use of referendums, despite their allegedly positive stance towards them, but by spoiling and trivialising the institution as a whole, they gave the opponents of direct democratic instruments the best arguments against them. In other words, if one wanted to design a mock referendum, to undermine the institution as a whole, one would create one exactly like the Greek referendum of 2015, which is now often presented as a caricature and as a tool in the hands of demagogues.