The Curse of Sisyphus: Clientelism and the Greek State

Event Details

With its deep economic crisis and dramatic political developments Greece has puzzled the world. What explains its long-standing problems? Dr Trantidis has extensively studied the challenges and crises facing modern Greece. His research has identified the main 'culprit': clientelism, namely the allocation of selective benefits by political actors (patrons) to their supporters (clients). Clientelism is widespread and embedded in Greece's party system. It is responsible for Greece's deficient state capacity and economic malaise. Greece's system of power has been occupied by clientelist network(s) with strong and deep connections with the state, whose removal is extremely difficult if not impossible. Governments avoided implementing reforms against this practice and had no incentive to create a functional Rule of Law system. As a result,, periods of unavoidable austerity have been succeeded by periods of fiscal profligacy and costly corruption. Like Sisyphus, Greece falls down to crisis again and again after a small period of relative growth and consolidation. But the Greek case is not unique. Using game theory, Dr Trantidis explains why similar developments can happen in advanced economies and consolidated democracies, like Australia, and argues that countries that follow that path are unlikely to escape from this situation.