The Greek crisis is going from… crisis to crisis. Every now and again it appears that we are about to get a break, something happens and we are back to “help me Jesus”. This situation that we got ourselves into five years ago doesn’t seem to end.
So what is causing all this? What is it that its not allowing Greece to finally and once and for all leave the deep recession behind, despite all the measures and sacrifices of the Greek people?
For Greece’s international observers, the answer is rather simple: “In your country, the essential principle of common rules applying to everyone was never implemented”. They are quick to clarify that “Greece is governed by exceptions”.
Truly, those with bargaining power have occasionally managed to get privileges, exemptions, tax cuts and other accommodations.
In the postwar years the country was governed with these principles, that is how the political party system was established, that is how the governors exercised their power, by looking out for “their own”, their friends and their fans.
Over time, these sort of ideas dominated in society. The people were addicted, everyone divd out how to do business with their politician, MP and Minister, with the parties and the middlemen between authority and the electorate.
Appointments in the public sector, tax settlements, licenses for building, taxis or trucks, student and military transfers were all bargained and negotiated with the party and authority, circumventing the common rules.
PASOK implemented this negotiation game more than anyone else, it expanded the cycle of people who could enjoy it and New Democracy followed suit – it is more than likely that the new powers in the Left will also give in to the temptation of serving their “comrades”.
However, the governing of the country by exceptions has resulted in distortions, mismanagement, inefficiencies and all sorts of deficits, especially a lack of trust.
Greece is different to most other developed European countries in that the rules are not common for everyone. Some are more equal than others and the occasional leaders felt like rulers who determined the fate of many people and the wealth of their buddies, their friends, their trustees, those whom they recognized as supporters, donors and companions.
In the past few years of the major crisis, if one thing collapsed it is precisely this state of governing by exceptions.
Nobody can support such a form of government any more. Anyone insisting on the old model is deluding himself.
In these times where credibility has valued and can result in success without middlemen, only those who realize the value of implementing common rules for everyone will succeed.
This reform alone is enough to change Greece.
Antonis Karakousis
Originally published in the Sunday print edition
