Greece's new political economy : state, finance, and growth from postwar to EMU / George Pagoulatos.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pagoulatos, George, 1967-

Series:

St. Antony's series (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))

[St. Antony's series]

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

European Union--Greece.

European Union.

Greece.

Greece--Economic conditions--1918-1974.

Economic conditions.

Greece--Economic conditions--1974-2009.

Greece--Economic policy.

Economic policy.

Physical Description:

xvi, 271 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan ; Oxford : In association with St. Anthony's College, 2003.

Summary:

"Greece's New Political Economy" traces the course of Greece from a postwar developmental state to its current participation in the Euro-zone. Taking an innovative comparative approach, George Pagoulatos examines the political economy of financial interventionism and liberalization, banking politics, relations between the government and central bank, the winners and losers of financial reform, the effects of globalization and EMU, and the implications of the new economic role of the state.

Contents:

1 Introduction: the Importance of Finance and the Origins of Developmentalism 1

The case of Greece 4

Banks and the political economy of finance 6

Economic development and the importance of finance 10

Origins of postwar developmentalism and the 'developmental state' 13

2 Regime Dependencies and the Political Economy of Postwar Economic Policies 20

Postwar growth and the cold war regime: external sources of domestic policy choices 20

The interwar legacy and the antecedent circumstances of postwar growth 22

Devaluation, restoration of monetary stability, and the outward-looking developmental strategy 25

The 'Greek economic model': ideology, strategy, and practice 29

The political economy of developmental policies: a state-driven pattern 38

Winners and losers of the post-1953 political economy 42

The political uses of administered credit 44

Administered credit as substitute for redistribution 45

3 Policy Paradigms, Financial Intervention, and the Limits of Developmentalism 48

Developmental finance and the Currency Committee 48

Industrial banking, policy paradigms, and lesson-drawing 51

Credit interventionism and the planning model: developmental policies without a developmental state 56

Plenty of savings, not enough investment: the perverse effects of developmental finance 62

Large-size 'infant industries' cohabiting with the small enterprise sector 67

Overleveraged: the capital structure of industry 69

Oligopoly structures and selective state protectionism 70

Banking power: high spreads and oligopoly profits 74

4 Crisis and Transition: Regime Change, Democratization, and the Decline of Developmentalism 80

Regime change: the 1970s crisis, end of stability, and the era of financial internationalization 80

The domestic response: monetary expansion, stop-go, and the inflationary spiral 85

The political economy of democratization and its impact on developmentalism 87

The stagflationary 1980s 95

The distortion of credit interventionism 100

The shift to economic stabilization and disinflation 103

5 Central Bank, Government, and the Politics of Financial Liberalization 112

Institutional independence: a framework of analysis 114

Exploiting windows of opportunity: policy strength beyond institutional independence 119

Internal central bank resources and organization 120

Agenda identification, policy determination, and exclusiveness: policymaking under government constraint 122

The decade of adjustment (1990-2000) and the national consensus over EMU 127

The momentous monetary policy shift and the role of financial liberalization 130

Central bank and government: the stakes of liberalization 133

6 Banks and Socioeconomic Interests: Winners and Losers of Financial Reform 138

Exhibiting policy strength: central bank and the banking sector 138

Financial and banking sector gains and losses from liberalization 142

High spreads: the politics of banking oligopoly 148

Facing the arena of socioeconomic interests 150

Central bank strength and the bankers' rise 159

A comment on interest organization: from state corporatism to parentela to concertation? 160

7 The New Political Economy of Financial Integration, Globalization, and the EMU 168

A new framework: the mixed effects of financial liberalization and the EMU 168

Implications for banking: bank-based systems persisting despite growing disintermediation 176

Redistributive and political implications of globalization, and the business-labor balance 178

The results of capital mobility on labor restraint: shift to neocorporatism? 184

Left and right under a disinflationary regime 192

Summarizing the argument 197

8 State, Finance, and Growth: Beyond the New Political Economy 199

The manifold importance of the state-finance connection 199

From developmental to stabilization state 201

State, power, and finance 210

The politics of economic reform 213

Development, equity, redistribution 214

Ideas, institutions, and interests in economic policy 216

On a final note: some comparative and normative considerations 220

Appendix 1 Governments and Prime Ministers in Greece, 1950-2000 224

Appendix 2 Clientelistic Policies of the Currency Committee 226

Appendix 3 Financial Liberalization in Greece: Selected Measures 227.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-260) and index.

ISBN:

0333752775

OCLC:

50622655