AbstractsEconomics

The economic crisis of 2008 is often taken to be a very special event when it comes to Greece. The Greeks are being blamed for their overconsumption and Greece is often described as one of the epicenters of the financial crisis. That Greece alone should be able to shake the global economy seems to be an exaggeration with the regard to Greece’s relatively small contribution to the European economy. The explanation for the Greek debt should be sought not only internally, but as a combination between the market based global system and the political constitution of Greece; modern Greece is born and developed in the EU and this has had a severe impact on the country’s economy and politic. The research question leading the search for another explanation is: What is the importance of EU's Regional Policies in the 1980s, in order to understand the current economic situation in Greece? The regional politics influences and consequences in Greece is explored and analyzed through the theory of Historical Institutionalism, focused on institutionalized clientelism since the clientelistic structures both historically and today is said to have a major influence on the political culture in Greece. The analysis centers on how the policies implemented in Greece in the 1980 when entering the EU affected, and was affected by, institutionalized clientelism. To close in on an answer to these questions the history of Greece and the institutionalized clientelism in Greece, which led to the clientelism that played an important part in the political climate after the fall of the military dictatorship is explored. Furthermore, the political and economic reasons for Greece wanting to be part of the EU and EUs reasons for welcoming Greece is analyzed as a critical juncture for change and development of new path dependencies. The examples used to analyze this are Integrated Mediterranean Programmes, Single European Act and Common Agriculture Policies, all introduced and implemented in the 1980ies. The last part of the analysis shows that these politics, that came from the weberian bureaucracy in EU, influenced how clientelism was institutionalized in Greece, hence how new path dependencies were created. The conclusions argues that the policies of from the EU was customized to the Greek clientelism, not the other way around. Hence policies created to a north west European understanding of s. 34 economics and bureaucracy failed in the Greek context and did not give the expected outcome. The immense debt of Greece can then be said to be a product of the regional politics of EU and the tradition of clientelism in Greece alike.