The Influence of Political Leadership on the Implementation of Municipal Consolidation in Greek Cities during the Fiscal Crisis

Fiscal and economic crisis in Greece after 2010 was accompanied with massive austerity measures and strict fiscal rules. Especially local government suffered from a huge decline of state grants (more than 70%). The municipalities have been obliged to implement strict consolidation measures (severe cut of expenses, obliged balanced budgets), while a monthly central supervision by an Observatory has been established. Main Question: Which is the “room of maneuver” of political leadership to influence the implementation and the outcomes of strict consolidation measures, being imposed hierarchically and comprehensively in the most centralistic country in Europe? Based on empirical evidence from an ongoing research on six Greek Cities with high debts I intend to analyze the “political leadership-legitimation” nexus and explore the impact that urban political leadership can afford in promoting legitimacy (input, throughput, output)( Haus & Heinelt 2004). Leadership style is dependent on the one hand on the opportunities and constraints caused by the contextual factors (horizontal and vertical power relations, party system) and on the other hand on the personal traits and the perceptions of leaders exercising leadership. Based on the categorization of four leadership styles (‘visionary’, ‘consensual facilitator’, ‘city boss”’, ‘caretaker’, see John/Cole 1999, Getimis/Hlepas 2006) I analyze the influence of the enactment of leadership o legitimacy, especially concerning the decision making of the “policy mix” of consolidation measures in each city (cutbacks, revenues), the involvement (or ignorance) of the opposition and of the Council, the communication strategy to the broader public, et.al. Empirical evidence has demonstrated that particular leadership styles (e.g. visionary leader and the consensual facilitator leader) often enable better outcomes, in terms of output-, throughput- and input- legitimacy. By contrast, the styles of the city boss and the caretaker leader, exercising authoritarian power, are prohibitive in that regard (especially concerning input and throughput legitimacy).