Greek to me
Greece is in trouble and Greeks are angry. What should they do?
A deal has finally been struck between Greece, the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund. To help combat the debt crisis engulfing the southern European nation, the EU and IMF will provide a combined $145 billion. In return, Greece will agree to a classic series of so-called “austerity measures” to address the profligate spending the helped fuel the crisis in the first place.
This kind of deal is old hat for the international economic community. The so-called “Washington Consensus,” dominant for much of the 1990s, provided debt relief to developing nations on many of the same conditions.
The more interesting question may be how we should expect Greek citizens to react.
In anticipation of the austerity measures, Greece has already rolled back the public pension system and increased tax revenues. Cuts to government salaries are also expected.
The Greek popular response has been less than friendly. Tens of thousands of Greek citizens have already taken to the streets to register their discontent.
Prime Minister George Papandreou addressed his nation Sunday, imploring them to make what he considered the right choice: “I know that with the decisions today our citizens must suffer greater sacrifices. The alternative, however, would be catastrophe and greater suffering for us all.”
Do Greeks have a right to protest?
On the one hand, much of the blame for Greek’s financial troubles – which now threaten nations across Europe – lays squarely at the feet of profligate policymakers. On the other hand, the situation is what it is. Without some pain now, defenders of the bailout argue, the nation faces real economic collapse.
Greeks have a right to their anger. Citizens rely on governments to make sound long-term economic decisions. But the relevant question is whether it is appropriate to translate that discontent into protest, disobedience, and even violence.
In this case, the Greek government is not undertaking what we would normally consider a breach of the public faith. They have not directed violence against citizens, nor have they pursued a campaign of disenfranchisement or dispossession against some subset of the population.
The smart response for angry Greeks probably isn’t to protest. But it is to get politically active. The strongest – and most appropriate – message Greeks can send their current leadership is to unseat them in the next election.
Unfortunately, Greek disorder is only the tip of the iceberg. Other Europeans – especially Germans – have strongly questioned whether they are obliged to bailout their Greek counterparts. For Greece, the test of whether they peacefully find a sustainable path to the future begins tomorrow. But for Europe, the question of whether true regional integration is possible begins today.
-Sam
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One Response to “Greek to me”
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Hey Sam,
“The strongest – and most appropriate – message Greeks can send their current leadership is to unseat them in the next election”.
I suppose the problem with that is that elections do not provide any genuine alternative option. Since all major parties, along with the elites and the major part of civil society, are responsible for the current situation, election would not offer any remedy or punishment.
In a way protest suffers from a similar pathology; as rage is directed against all, no clear signal can be sent and no particular fault can be addressed.
Another alternative could be the public use of reason, particularly through the internet.
To be sure many of the people’s wants will have to be frustrated, irrespective of political leadership. No policy can generate money (or at least the valuable things money can buy) out of nothing. So there is a mismatch between people’s wants and their productive capacity at least at the current state of global capitalism. In that respect, economics would pose a constraint on politics, even if our rulers were fully efficient and beyond moral reproach.
Ilias