Sociopolitical reputation and the reform of pharmacies in Greece and Portugal under EU conditionality

The article argues that differences in socio-political reputation can explain why interest groups fail or succeed in influencing policymakers and that therefore socio-political reputation is a useful addition to the conceptual toolbox of interest groups scholars. Focusing on pharmacies and their associations in Greece and Portugal between 2005 and 2021, the article uses the concept of socio-political reputation to explain why reform attempts to reduce pharmaceutical spending and increase competition in the pharmacy sector were successful in Portugal but not in Greece, even though pharmacists are a much stronger interest group in Portugal than in Greece and even though both countries were under significant exogenous pressure to introduce structural reforms in the wake of the Eurozone crisis.