Modernising the public administration in Greece and the rocky road of reforms. Empowering local communities? The case of ‘Kallikratis’

Since 1974, several attempts to reform the public administration in Greece have been undertaken. Most of these endeavours reflected the dominant trends and dynamics of each period accompanied by varying degrees of acceptance and resistance. The rather slow and lengthy implementation process of the various reforms was met with numerous political, economic, social and administrative challenges. One of the most recent emblematic reforms in Greece’s public administration is known as ‘Kallikratis’. The key objective of this reform was to empower local authorities and communities and further decentralization. The main reasoning lies in strengthening local governance with a transfer of competencies and resources from the central state to local authorities to operate autonomously. However, the implementation of this reform brought to light some shortcomings related to the provision and quality of services, the organizational structure, staffing and financing, and the exercise of competencies. Other significant factors include the dominant political culture and strong vested interests. The aim of this paper is to investigate and analyze the problems of the ‘Kallikratis’ reform in 2010 in Greece during its implementation process. The study is drawn on 30 interviews with officials from the local and central government and descriptive statistics.