Political party - interest group linkages in Greece (2010-2015)

The process of dissolving particularistic or disjointed state corporatism which had started in Greece in the early 1990s, took a new turn when the first austerity package was adopted (2010). Labour unions and the associations of liberal professions rejected the first and also the next two austerity packages, adopted in 2012 and 2014, while employers’ associations sided with the government. In contrast to other crisis-stricken countries, in Greece labour unions and professional associations did not at any point agree with the government on any economic or other reforms. The confrontation between such interest groups and the center-right and center-left governing parties was intensified upon the adoption of the second austerity package (2012). Afterwards, interest groups sided with the major left-wing opposition party Syriza, only to sever their ties with it too, after a third austerity package was adopted in 2014, this time by a left-wing/nationalist right-wing government. Overall, interest groups were excluded from decision making during the crisis, but, depending on their earlier, pre-crisis relations with governing parties, some interest groups were able only to delay the implementation of reforms affecting them negatively. The analysis will contrast the pre-crisis with the economic crisis phase, emphasizing historical legacies of divisions among interest groups, such as insiders vs. outsiders of the labour market, and the long-term clientelistic treatment of selected interest groups by the state in terms of income, taxation and welfare policies.