Greek Government Research Articles

According to British Documents, the Economic-Financial Situation in Greece during the Turkish War of Independence and the Efforts of the Governments to Finance the War

Starting on 15 May 1919 with the Greek invasion of Smyrna, the occupation movement in Western Anatolia put the Greek finances in difficulty with an increasing sum from year to year. The Greek governments were able to finance the war with the financial aid provided by the Allies to Greece before the invasion. However, in November 1920, Venizelos lost the elections and resigned as prime minister, and in December of the same year, the exiled King Constantine, who had great problems with the Allies, was restored to the throne, which deeply affected the Allied relations with Greece. After this date, the country was unable to receive foreign aid, and in order to finance the war, it introduced many measures, especially tax rates, which were burdensome to the people. Naturally, this situation led to a weakening of the purchasing power of the people who were oppressed under inflationary policies. Despite the large deficit in the balance of income and expenditure during the war years, the country's international trade continued at an increasing rate, albeit with some troubled periods.

From Fortress Europe to Border-Filter: Vulnerability, Biopolitics, and the Management of Migration in Greece and the European Union after 2015

Abstract: Following increased migration flows in 2015, the European Commission (EC) and the Greek government implemented new strategies and legislation to regulate mobility in the EU area. The impact of one of these strategies is especially important. The EC "European Agenda on Migration" was implemented by Greek Asylum Law 4375/2016 and followed up with subsequent legislation. The legislation introduced "vulnerability assessment" as a tool for granting or withholding refugee status based on biopolitical criteria. The border can be seen as a filter that admits, on biopolitical grounds, those supposedly deserving of entry while it excludes those deemed undeserving. The border-filter differs from the perception of Fortress Europe that is popular in activist and other political discourses in much of Europe. The idea of Fortress Europe implies a total absence of migrant mobility and does not correspond to our empirical research findings.

Four Years of Anti-COVID-19 Regulations in Greece: Overview of the Legislative and Regulatory Process and of an Exemplary Administrative Codification

Abstract In the 25th of February 2024, four years since the first Act of Legislative Content of the Greek Government concerning the prevention and limitation of the spreading of coronavirus COVID-19 were completed. The regulatory production of this period is huge and has a series of unique characteristics with prevailing one the use of means of extraordinary legislation as foreseen in the Greek Constitution. All these measures are presented in a consolidated form in the “Special Administrative Codification of urgent regulatory measures to prevent and limit the spreading of coronavirus COVID-19 and to deal with relevant problems” under the short name of PANDEKTIS, conducted by the Department of Administrative Codifications – Raptarchis of the Secretariat General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of the Presidency of the Greek Government. The study of this monumental work gives rise to very interesting findings, about the way Hellenic Government handled the Pandemic crisis. This article presents the law-making process and the process of issuing secondary legislation during the Pandemic, its quantitative and qualitative characteristics with special comment on the fulfillment of the rules and principles of Better Regulation and discusses the use of administrative codification as a means of reflecting an holistic picture of the regulatory production during a period of crisis.

Greece’s 2015 Eurozone Bailout “Renegotiation”: Beware of Greeks Bearing “Unpolitics”?

In January 2015, Greece witnessed a political earthquake with the election of the populist anti-austerity/EU bailout coalition of the left-wing party SYRIZA and the far-right party ANEL. It is argued that during January–July 2015, the SYRIZA–ANEL coalition engaged in a protracted process of renegotiation of Greece’s bailout terms that were agreed between previous Greek governments and the so-called Troika (European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund) adopting a behaviour ruled by “unpolitics.” First, the SYRIZA–ANEL government immediately rejected formal and informal rules of EU decision-making. Second, the SYRIZA–ANEL government rejected traditional means of compromise, such as package deals and side payments. Third, when Greece’s creditors presented their last-minute bailout offer in June 2015 to avoid Greece leaving the eurozone (Grexit), the SYRIZA–ANEL government rejected the suggested solution and tried to exploit the ensuing deadlock by calling a rashly organised referendum asking Greeks to vote against the suggested deal. This period of “unpolitics” ended almost immediately after the referendum when, in a sudden and unexpected volte-face, Tsipras interpreted the referendum result as a call for compromise with the Troika and accepted the previously intolerable bailout deal.

Constructing a governmental vision of happiness: Insights from Greece

This paper analyzes how governments instrumentalize the concept of happiness for political ends. It argues that while happiness is primarily employed as an externally-oriented policy and discourse to attract tourists and desirable migrants, it is equally aimed at changing the expectations of the local population, including brain-drainers. We argue that in the case of Greece, happiness forms a governmental vision to brand the country anew after years of moralizing discourses of guilt, blame, and debt surrounding the financial crisis. First, we outline how the Greek government construes happiness as a commodified experience that the Greek population ought to generate for tourists and desirable migrants (‘live like a local’), but importantly also for itself (‘live like a tourist’). Second, this happiness vision seeks to both encourage the Greek population (in that we want to be happy), but also to discipline it (in that we need to be happy). Thirdly, to justify this vision, its key promoters conceive of a future that requires sanitizing the country’s past and present, camouflage its unpleasant and contentious aspects, and re-narrate it in positive terms. Curiously, however, this is less about envisioning a better future after years of crisis, than about asking the Greek population to be satisfied with the status quo. This way, the happiness vision is an attempt to substitute the unfulfilled promises of the capitalist imaginary vis-à-vis opportunity, upward social mobility, and overabundance, where happiness arises not by overcoming the precarizing realities of inequality, but from having a positive attitude in navigating them.

Fiscal extraction by sovereignty: Calculative bordering and differential entanglement in the Eurozone crisis

The article analyses the relationship between sovereignty and capitalist extraction using assemblage theory. It discusses dialectical variants of assemblage theory as tools to think about the entangled relations that make economic actors. The article proposes two concepts, calculative bordering and differential entanglement, to make sense of processes that responsibilised the Greek government for the 2010s Eurozone crisis and invoked its sovereignty as a tool for extraction value for financial markets. The article contributes to anthropological theorisations of sovereignty by showing how, as a political concept, sovereignty can serve to responsibilize governments to secure accumulation and ensure capitalist extraction. The article thus aims for a refined understanding of the changing relation between extraction and sovereignty and processes of fiscal responsibilization as a performance of sovereignty.

Shifts in planning tradition amid an economic crisis and in light of a planning reform: the case of Greece

ABSTRACT Planning tradition is contextually changing in response to the political, social and economic environment. The economic crisis of the previous decade challenged the conventional Greek planning and governance model, by introducing new planning instruments that changed the balance of public- and private-sector involvement in the planning process. These shifts engendered planning dysfunctions, as the new and existing instruments functioned in competition. The planning reform currently being implemented reinforces public planning and the concentration of power at the central government level, with the state being called upon to address long-standing deficiencies in the consistency of planning policy, efficiency and feasibility.

The investment grade and funds' portfolio allocation in Greek assets

The importance of investment funds for the global economy has increased in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. In the present paper, we focus on the case of Greece and the developments in investment funds’ portfolios, with a special emphasis on the period before the sovereign credit rating upgrade of Greece to investment grade. By means of a differences-in-differences estimator, we find that, in the aftermath of the change in Greece’s sovereign credit rating outlook to positive by the rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P), investment funds increased their holdings of Greek sovereign bonds in relation to other comparable euro area sovereign bonds. Next, in a dynamic panel data model setup we find that this increase in investment funds’ positions in Greek government bonds (GGBs) explains about 80% of the reduction in Greek sovereign bond spreads. Our results highlight the strong association between investment funds’ portfolio allocation and the underlying assets’ credit ratings, and provide incentives for continuing reforms that may lead to rating upgrades, as a means of increasing demand for Greek sovereign bonds and controlling the cost of debt. This is especially important when the monetary policy environment becomes tighter and interest rates, as well as the cost of funding, increase.

COVID-19 crisis management in Greek airlines

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of Greeceʼs aviation management during the COVID-19 pandemic. Greece was selected as a focal point due to its significant role in European tourism and its burgeoning air transport industry, both of which suffered greatly from the pandemic. The research is exploratory in nature and incorporates an analysis of secondary sources including airline archives, public services, national regulatory authorities, European Union institutions, and public media, along with a series of detailed, semi-structured interviews with six executives from leading Greek airlines. The study illuminates the primary effects of the COVID-19 crisis on Greek air transport, scrutinizes the crisis management strategies employed by the airlines and assesses their perceived effectiveness. It also delves into the guidance and support provided by the Greek government and both national and international civil aviation organizations. Moreover, the study explores the impact of the crisis on emerging opportunities and innovations. Finally, it reflects on the lessons learned and offers recommendations for future improvements.

Exercising control in media during Covid-19: the “Stay at Home” campaign on Twitter in Greece

In 2020, the Greek government initiated the “Stay at Home” Campaign (or “Petsas’ list”), a fund for supporting the country’s media industry due to financial issues provoked by the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, the campaign would promote the message of staying at home to stop spreading Covid-19. However, that initiative seemed to have been perceived as a manipulation effort to control the news media in order to support an ideal image of the government, including defending the excessive pandemic restrictions (e.g., lockdowns and the prohibition of music in restaurants and bars). The current study employs Ideological Discourse Analysis (IDA) to investigate the online anti-media sentiment empowered by the “Stay at Home” Campaign. It focuses on the Twitter users’ ideological constructions emphasizing on the positive depictions of one group (i.e., the government and the media) against the “other” (i.e., the public) in 1623 Tweets of the relevant hashtag in Greek #Petsas_list (#Λιστα_Πετσα) on Twitter. The results showed that financial support when used in a controversial and non-transparent way, could undermine media independence and empower anti-media sentiment. Lastly, the study enhances the literature about the mass media industry’s problems globally, including the decline in media freedom that contributes to the democratic recession.

The 2012 Greek Retrofit and Borrowing Costs in the European Periphery

This article examines the impact of Greece retroactively, via legislation, changing the terms in hundreds of billions of euros worth of Greek government bonds governed by domestic Greek law. As the abrogation of gold clauses in US government bonds by the US Congress in 1933 had been, the Greek action was decried as violative of the rule of law and sure to negatively impact the future ability of Euro area sovereigns to borrow. We test whether the Greek action had negative spillovers on European government debt markets. We find no evidence of increased borrowing for even the most peripheral European economies from the Greek action.

Disabled students’ voices about their psycho-social and educational experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: an empirical study

This article presents a study about the psycho-social and educational experiences of disabled students during the COVID-19 pandemic, from quarantine and remote learning to the transition back to their schools. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with 45 primary and secondary school-aged disabled students attending both regular and special schools in Greece. Despite the identification of some positive experiences, not all disabled pupils and in all cases were benefited from the measures implemented by the Greek government, as they voiced a range of educational, psychological, and social challenges. Further, disabled pupils’ accounts indicated that they were confronted with ableist discourses in the Greek educational policy and practices concerning the ‘support’ that was available. This study emphasises the need to listen to the voices of disabled students as a pathway to ensure their rights and promote their inclusion, empowerment, and resilience in crisis and no crisis times in their schools.

The origins of public relations in Greece: Tracing the missing link and excavating landmark cases

The purpose of this paper is to provide an historical narrative tracing precedents of Greek Public Relations (PR) practice as far back as the organizing of mega events in mid-nineteenth century culminating in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. The analysis documents that PR activities are interwoven with Greek governments’ initiatives aimed at tourism promotion. The paper is based on archival material and secondary sources. Access was granted to the special collections of the National Library of Greece and the Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation. Moreover, the study interrogates the three landmark events that ushered in the emergence of professional public relations in Greece in the early postwar period and supplements with important information the conventional accounts. The analysis established a PR-Tourism and National image promotion nexus that runs continuously throughout the period under examination, from the emergence of PR activities in mid-nineteenth century up until the early 1950s. The findings are based on the available written records. This historical review does not purport to be exhaustive and comprehensive. Future research could identify more PR-like activities worthy of mention. The study provides a springboard for investigating the precedents of PR practice in the pre-professionalization era. This investigation calls for an interdisciplinary perspective. This paper is the first one to trace precedents of professional PR practice to the second half the nineteenth century and the interwar period in Greece. It shows the interconnection of PR-like activities with tourism and underscores the prominent position of state agencies in those activities.

Preschool teachers' perceptions of preschool education during Covid-19 in Greece: a diary-interview study

Preschools all around the world had recently been forced to adopt Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) as a means to encounter the Covid-19 pandemic. While online teaching and learning has already been employed in higher education for many years, this was the first time it had been implemented in preschool classrooms. The current study aimed to investigate preschool teachers’ experiences of formal education during the transition between ERT and face-to-face education in Greece. Teacher diaries were collected over a four-month period, followed by online interviews with the teachers. Both data sets were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Findings indicated that ERT had a short-term negative influence on children’s behaviour and eagerness to engage in interpersonal social interactions upon their return to preschool. Teachers further reported that the measures adopted by the Greek Government as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on children’s learning, belonging, development and participation and failed to meet young children’s needs. The appropriateness of remote teaching as a mode of learning for preschoolers is discussed.

The state of emergency medicine in Greece: at critical momentum

Greece is a parliamentary republic in southeastern Europe populated by over 10 million permanent residents: 9 million reside on the mainland, with almost 4 million in the greater Athens area. The remaining 1 million populate the over 1200 Greek islands. In addition, more than 160,000 asylum-seekers reached Greece in 2022, and more than 25 million tourists have visited Greece in the last two years. Modern Greek Emergency Medicine (EM) is now in its 4th decade. The Greek government has focused the last few years on enhancing the quality of emergency services provided in public hospitals. Emergency Departments (EDs) are being modernized, undergraduate medical education gradually incorporates EM, and a specialty training program in emergency nursing has been established. However, the late recognition of the critical importance of EM as a specialty in Greece has resulted in the subsequent need to create three alternative pathways to EM, none of which are direct from residency. The first is a 24-month Emergency Medicine fellowship after completing a residency in another specialty and then passing the national exam. The second is for physicians who have worked in a public hospital ED (Gr: Ethniko Systima Ygeias (ESY) ESY for at least three years and successfully passed the national exam. The third, which no longer exists, is a ‘grandfather’ pathway for those physicians who worked in an ESY ED for five years prior to the creation of the fellowship training program. As a result, there is a critical shortage of EM-trained physicians, resulting in most care being provided by physicians without formal training in EM. This is further confounded by the country’s challenging geography, with frequent air transfers from the islands to mainland hospitals. Creating an EM Residency training program is a critical next step to overcoming many of the challenges facing EM provision in Greece today: it would address the shortage of EM-trained providers, decrease the need for costly ground and air transfers, and improve the quality of emergency care throughout Greece.

On the impact of mass screening for SARS-CoV-2 through self-testing in Greece.

Screening programs that pre-emptively and routinely test population groups for disease at a massive scale were first implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in a handful of countries. One of these countries was Greece, which implemented a mass self-testing program during 2021. In contrast to most other non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), mass self-testing programs are particularly attractive for their relatively small financial and social burden, and it is therefore important to understand their effectiveness to inform policy makers and public health officials responding to future pandemics. This study aimed to estimate the number of deaths and hospitalizations averted by the program implemented in Greece and evaluate the impact of several operational decisions. Granular data from the mass self-testing program deployed by the Greek government between April and December 2021 were obtained. The data were used to fit a novel compartmental model that was developed to describe the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece in the presence of self-testing. The fitted model provided estimates on the effectiveness of the program in averting deaths and hospitalizations. Sensitivity analyses were used to evaluate the impact of operational decisions, including the scale of the program, targeting of sub-populations, and sensitivity (i.e., true positive rate) of tests. Conservative estimates show that the program reduced the reproduction number by 4%, hospitalizations by 25%, and deaths by 20%, translating into approximately 20,000 averted hospitalizations and 2,000 averted deaths in Greece between April and December 2021. Mass self-testing programs are efficient NPIs with minimal social and financial burden; therefore, they are invaluable tools to be considered in pandemic preparedness and response.

The Greek economic crisis and its impact on the national health system

Abstract The Greek economic crisis produced severe economic and social outcomes. A massive rescue package was conditional on implementing a Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies agreed upon between the Greek government and the EU, European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. The extremely austere fiscal consolidation and the structural reforms accompanying the Greek Economic Adjustment Programmes reduced the country’s GDP. Implementing the austerity policies on the Greek National Health System, which was already facing structural problems, reduced the quality and availability of public health care services. This paper investigates the impact of the GDP change on public healthcare expenditures (HCE) from 2000 to 2018. The empirical analysis reveals a statistically significant positive correlation between the GDP per capita and public healthcare expenditure (HCE) from 2000 to 2014 while the effect of GDP on HCE after the 2015 remains unchanged. This paper contributes to the field’s literature since it determines the impact of GDP on public HCE, specifically matched with empirical results to derive conclusive answers.

The socio-political situation in Greece according to the report of the Swedish diplomatic mission from Constantinople (August 1916)

The subject of the study is a report from the Swedish diplomatic mission in Constantinople, transmitted to the envoy of the Swedish Kingdom in St. Petersburg, considered as an important source on the socio-political situation in Greece with an assessment of possible prospects for its development. The report contains information concerning the most serious disagreements and irreconcilable contradictions between supporters of the Germanophile position led by King Constantine and supporters of the prominent liberal politician E. Venizelos, who repeatedly headed the Greek government. The latter openly advocated cooperation with the Entente countries, primarily Great Britain, for the landing of a contingent of allied troops in Greece to help the Serbian army and prevent the troops of the central powers. The period of the beginning of a series of uprisings in continental Greece and on the Greek islands of the king's policy is described. Based on the methods of historicism and systematic research, the issues of the very complicated situation around Greece as one of the most important players in the Balkans, the problems of the Thessaloniki Front, the military and diplomatic actions of the Entente allies in the region, the assessment of the situation by Swedish diplomats and their forecasts are considered. The analysis of the considered source allows us to draw the following conclusions. The materials of the report under study, together with other information, created a three-dimensional picture of events in Greece for the Swedish government in order to take any measures and take the necessary position from the point of view of the country's interests. This report was also important for our military and diplomatic authorities to understand the Swedish side's reaction to the events in Greece, to see their objective assessment of the outcome of this situation, and of the entire world war as a whole. The information obtained from this source gave Russian diplomacy the opportunity to use them in its relations with partners and have an idea of the prospects for the development of the situation in the Balkans.

Empirical analysis on the impact of labour market regulations on uninsured employment in Greece

The impact of labour market regulations on uninsured employment in Greece between 2014 and 2019 is a crucial exploration in response to the pervasive challenge of undeclared work. With the rise of globalization and evolving labour dynamics, understanding and addressing the complexities of uninsured employment by analysing data from the Greek Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs was the main purpose of this study. Employing a comprehensive examination of key indicators, the study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of measures in curbing undeclared work. The pivotal strategies implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs during the specified period were analysed using statistical analysis, focusing on high fines, reduced non-salary costs, the ERGANI information system, and a modernized fines framework. Statistical graphs were utilized to examine trends, providing a solid foundation for evaluating the impact of the implemented strategies. Qualitative assessments were employed to offer a nuanced understanding of the contextual factors influencing the outcomes. The findings reveal a positive trend, showcasing a significant reduction in undeclared workers and non-compliant businesses, underscoring the effectiveness of the implemented measures. An examination of 237,455 businesses in Greece over the period 2014-2019 revealed that 28,044 entities (11.81%) employed undeclared workers. Among 812,460 scrutinized employees, 44,642 (5.49%) were identified as undeclared, leading to fines totalling €468,997,663 in efforts to address non-compliance with labour regulations. This study not only sheds light on the successful strategies adopted by the Greek government but also offers valuable practical lessons for policymakers globally

Down a Slippery Slope: Lack of Trust, Coercive Threats and Business Tax Resistance in Greece, 1955–1988

Over the second half of the 20th century, Greek governments failed to tax business income in line with the country’s level of economic development. This paper uses the “slippery slope” model of tax compliance to explain why the reform of income and corporate taxation in the late 1950s met strong resistance in the business sector. We argue that the negative legacy of interwar reforms, the lack of sustained and credible investment in trust building in coincidence with the postwar reforms, and the intensification of coercive threats in tax enforcement led to an antagonistic tax climate and a degradation of enforced and voluntary compliance. Our qualitative analysis based on original primary sources shows that the arguments publicly voiced by entrepreneurs and their organizations reflected their persistent perception of tax power as unfair, arbitrary and extractive. Using aggregate tax returns data, our quantitative analysis finds evidence of systematic and increasing income underreporting both by unincorporated and incorporated businesses. This vicious circle of non-cooperation and mutual distrust explains why governments got trapped into a persistent low tax capacity equilibrium that still casts a shadow on the Greek economy.