The Limits of Europeanization: Reform Capacity and Policy Conflict in Greece (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Limits of Europeanization: Reform Capacity and Policy Conflict in Greece George Kaloudis Kevin Featherstone and Dimitris Papadimitriou. The Limits of Europeanization: Reform Capacity and Policy Conflict in Greece. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Pp. vii-247. 30 tables. Hardback $80.00. As the title of the book indicates, Kevin Featherstone and Dimitri Papadimitriou attempt to examine the impact of Europeanization in Greece by focusing on three important sectors: the pension system, the labor market, and Olympic Airways/Airlines. Various European Union (EU) instruments, both soft and hard, are used to determine how Greece's domestic environment responded to European Union initiatives. The book is divided into seven chapters. In the Introduction, the authors provide a definition of Europeanization, explain why they chose to focus on Greece, and address "the relevance of EU stimuli and processes to domestic reform in Greece" (p. 18). In Chapters Two and Three, Featherstone and Papadimitriou develop the conceptual framework for the book. Specifically, in Chapter Two, they consider "the external stimulus to reform represented by the pressures of the EU" by measuring European Union membership and its effect on domestic reform and evaluating the country's ability to enact reforms as a result of European Union pressure (p. 39). In Chapter Three, the authors focus on the domestic constraints to reform, including the prevailing political culture, the party system, and neo-corporatism. The authors concentrate in Chapter Four on the efforts to encourage reform of the pension system, which has proven very difficult despite the European Union's strong commitment. They conclude that the primary reason for this difficulty has been Greece's commitment to statism and strong opposition from relevant stakeholders. Featherstone and Papadimitriou address the challenge of reforming the Greek labor market in Chapter Five. The European Union aspires to create "an open, flexible market among its member states," yet it has failed to this point because "it was equipped only with exhortation, reporting, and peer pressure as instruments for policy implementation" (p. 118). The European Union has also failed in this endeavor because Greek governments have had problems "shifting the terms of the debate and in employing an effective strategy" (p. 119). As a result, the interests of the actors involved remain at odds and the rules of the game have not been changed. Reforming Olympic Airways/Airlines, the focus of Chapter Six, also illuminates the limitations of Europeanization. Even though both the European [End Page 157] Commission and successive Greek governments desired reform, "what was feasible domestically proved unacceptable to the [European Union] Commission's rules" (p. 185). In the concluding chapter, the authors state that "stimuli from the EU for domestic change have produced only modest policy reforms in the selected sectors of Greece" (p. 188). In their view "reform capacity in Greece rests on the paradox of governance. At the top, the government is normally very strong and faces few formal veto points. Yet the government is itself institutionally weak with a large, low-skilled, and ill-coordinated bureaucracy" (p. 201). In addition, the authors state that a culture of clientelism, corruption, and conflict "skews representation and prohibits consensus" (p. 201). This book is most appropriate for upper-division undergraduate as well as graduate students. It advances our understanding, not only of Greece and the difficulties associated with reforming the aforementioned sectors, but also of the European Union and the limitations of Europeanization. The authors undertook extensive research, including interviews with important actors. The extensive data provided by the authors is another reason for the work's significance. However, the tendency to be repetitive, even though usually understandable, is a limitation of this work. George Kaloudis Rivier College Copyright © 2010 The Johns Hopkins University Press