The Crisis Impact on the State Apparatus of Southern Europe: National and Comparative Studies

Abstract

This panel aims to bring together theoretical and empirical papers of national and comparative studies examining the impact of the current economic crisis on the structure and function of the state apparatus in the southern member – states of the European Union (EU). All central and regional public authorities in these states have to face neoliberal reforms and austerity policies, exerting considerable pressure on their traditionally overdeveloped and overstaffed civil service, police, judiciary and military. They also need to cope with all kind of serious problems, like rising tax evasion, crime, corruption, illegal immigration, mass demonstrations, and violent protests. At the same time the enforcement of such austerity policies causes mass reactions and serious tensions between the state and citizens. Considering that all these Southern European states share an authoritarian past by fascist and military dictatorships and a common Europeanization-democratization process, the current global financial crisis has been creating a serious legitimation crisis of their state and democratic institutions. Hence, this panel aspires to include studies examining the impacts of the global financial crisis on the state apparatus in South European countries. Such works may focus: a. on the repressive state apparatus vis a vis human rights and civil liberties (involving police, military, militia, security forces, judiciary, and prisons) ; b. the administrative state apparatus vis a vis the neoliberal state reforms (i.e. civil service, public personnel, state bureaucracy, state inefficiency and corruption); and c. the resulting legitimation crisis in Southern European States and its impact on democracy.

Title	Details
State Administrative Reforms under the Austerity Programme in Greece: The Question of an Enforced and Disciplinary State Modernisation	View Paper Details
On Illegality, Anomia and Violence in Contemporary Greece	View Paper Details
Policies, Practices and Everyday Insecurity in Contemporary Portugal	View Paper Details
Monti’s Neoliberal Reforms on the Italian State: A Crisis Remedy or a Cause for Social Explosion?	View Paper Details
The Crisis Impact on the State Apparatus of Spain	View Paper Details