Who’s going to take on the clientelist state?


Every Greek authorities had ample opportunities to uproot the clasp of clientelism implicit the state apparatus and didn’t. Why? Because immoderate enactment that’s successful powerfulness oregon has realistic chances of being successful powerfulness – meaning that it is simply a enactment with wide appeal, uniting antithetic trends – would beryllium committing governmental termination by severing ties with important sections of society. It may, by cracking down connected clientelist ties, gain the applause of municipality elites, but it would beryllium losing its transportation with the wide broad of its voters, who ever expect to beryllium served oregon accommodated when the request arises.


It is simply a unique accidental to disrupt the structures of the clientelist system

Mainstream parties cannot fulfill their formative relation successful society. They person abandoned it. They beryllium to govern – or, enactment differently, if they cease successful the nationalist caput to beryllium viable for government, they shrink. In the existent exemplary of governance, the clientelist system is simply a cardinal and enduring constant.
Therefore, we should not expect, successful airy of the workplace subsidies affair, immoderate substantial betterment successful the absorption I mentioned earlier.

When campaigning to beryllium elected, each premier curate has spoken of a small, flexible cabinet, yet each ended up forming governments with 60 oregon adjacent 65 ministers and lawman ministers. Why? Because wide geographic practice is cardinal successful forming governments. And why is such geographic practice necessary? Because that is what the clientelist state requires. The narration betwixt voter, MP and curate is resilient.


Just look astatine what happened to the champion of clientelism, PASOK. When its voters realized that it could nary longer service their idiosyncratic interests – due to the fact that of the austerity measures – the enactment collapsed. This narration was ne'er restored and this is 1 of the reasons why the socialist enactment has not been a superior contender for authorities successful the 15 years since.


Taking this into account, therefore, we shouldn’t get our hopes too precocious when we perceive yet different authorities talking again astir superior reforms and structural changes to ace down connected the clientelist state. We’ve had our capable of bare promises and wishful thinking. An idealist mightiness accidental that the premier curate has a aureate accidental up successful the upcoming law revision. It is simply a unique accidental to disrupt the structures of the clientelist system by establishing the incompatibility of serving simultaneously arsenic a curate and a subordinate of Parliament, and by introducing term limits for MPs.


Of course, such proposals would provoke a storm of reactions and would astir surely beryllium rejected – but astatine the very least, the premier curate could accidental that helium tried, that helium fought for something beyond his governmental reach.


So, immoderate politicians looking for their party’s “lost soul” request not look very far. They will find it successful the clientelist state. That is where the bosom of each governing parties truly beats.