| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Few people have been shielded from the recent financial crisis and fewer still have suffered more than the Greeks. With unemployment rates above 27 percent, youth unemployment just below 60 percent, 25 percent shrinking of the GDP since 2009, higher taxes, lower wages and pensions, and only modest price deflation in the market, it is hard to be optimistic about a quick economic recovery. From Stagnation to Forced Adjustment provides a thorough discussion of the chronic pathologies that rendered Greece the weakest link during the Eurozone crisis. The book's contributors consider a range of explanations for "reform stagnation" in Greece despite the presence of seemingly favorable institutional conditions since the transition to democracy in 1974-a unitary state with stable one-party governments, cohesive parties, and few veto players. The theme of the volume is that lack of reform is causally related to the intense financial crisis that led to the sovereign debt crisis in Greece. The authors suggest that the crisis occured because of contextual factors that did not allow reforms to function properly or in some cases to be implemented at all. By setting the current crisis in a broader historical and political context, the book makes possible a deeper understanding of the developments surrounding it. And a review of this book provides an opportunity to also consider the broader meaning of the Greek crisis, which poses important questions for the future of democracy in the Eurozone.
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