Panagiotis Evangelopoulos has an excellent short article in the current (summer) issue of The Independent Review (available by subscription). His basic argument is that political leaders in Greece, both left and right, have used political rent seeking to maintain themselves in power. A key quote:
In this type of society, politicians work as brokers in a system of political clientelism. They expand the public sector, exchanging jobs for votes. They also push the private sector into bed with the public sector, assigning to the former secure profits, privileges, and finally explicit and legally established rents — with bribes and corruption forming the dark side of the modern Greek economy.
It’s not just Greece.
