ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS AND THE EUROZONE CRISIS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GREECE AND PORTUGAL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2017.32.336361Keywords:
Eurozone Crisis, Adjustment Programmes, Public Administration, Greece, PortugalAbstract
The Eurozone crisis that erupted in late 2009 had a strong impact on the countries of the EU periphery, triggering a range of fiscal and structural adjustments at all levels of government. Greece and Portugal were most affected by the crisis and embarked on fiscal consolidation programmes in exchange for the external financial assistance packages. Public administration was a key reform area where large-scale adjustments needed to be made in a relatively short period of time. This paper seeks to assess the impact of the fiscal adjustment programmes on the Greek and Portuguese public administrations. Drawing on empirical evidence from the period 2009-2016, the effect of the initiated policies is analyzed with reference to quantitative and qualitative indicators. The findings of the comparative study highlight certain similarities and differences in the way that austerity policies affected the domestic administrative systems. The paper also offers some possible explanations for the observed variations in the outcomes and the prospects of the reform programmes.
References
Bach, S., & Bordogna, L. (2013). Reframing public service employment relations: the impact of economic crisis and the new EU economic governance. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 19(4), 279–294. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959680113505031
Bruneau, T., Jalali, C., & Colino, C. (2015). Sustainable governance indicators – Portugal report 2015. Bertelsmann Stiftung. Retrieved from http://www.sgi-network.org/docs/2015/country/SGI2015_Portugal.pdf.
Caldas, J.C. (2012). The impact of “anti-crisis” measures and the social and employment situation. Portugal. Study - European Economic and Social Committee – Workers Group. Retrieved from http://www.eesc.europa.eu/resources/docs/portugal-en.pdf.
Copelovitch, M., Frieden, & Walter, J.S. (2016). The political economy of the Euro crisis. Comparative Political Studies, 49(7), 811 – 840. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414016633227
Corte-Real, I. (2008). Public management reform in Portugal: successes and failures. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 21(2), 205–229. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550810855663
Da Paz, M., Lima C., & Abrantes, M. (2016). DIADSE – Dialogue for advancing social Europe. Country report: Portugal (Draft version). CESIS - Centro de Estudos para a Intervenção Social. Retrieved from http://hsi.uva.nl/binaries/content/assets/subsites/hugo-sinzheimer-institute/diadse---portugal-report-march-2016.pdf?2920917842092.
Darvas, Z., & Álvaro, L. (2015). The limitations of policy coordination in the Euro area under the European semester. Bruegel Policy Contribution 19. Retrieved from http://bruegel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/pc_2015_194.pdf.
De Sousa, L., Magalhães, P., & Amaral, L. (2014). Sovereign debt and governance failures. Portuguese democracy and the financial crisis. American Behavioral Scientist, 58(12), 1517-1541. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764214534666
Di Mascio, F. & Natalini, A. (2015). Fiscal retrenchment in Southern Europe: changing patterns of public management in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Public Management Review, 17(1), 129-148. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2013.790275
Diamandouros, N., Gunther, R., Sotiropoulos, D., & Malefakis, E. (2006). Introduction: Democracy and the State in the new Southern Europe. In: Gunther, R., Diamandouros, N., & Sotiropoulos, D. (eds), Democracy and the State in the New Southern Europe (pp.1-41). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199202812.003.0001
Dimitrakopoulos, D. (2014). Response to session 1 ‘International experiences of administrative reform’. Administrative reform in Greece – A Report on a keynote policy symposium of the Hellenic Observatory. LSE (April 11), 20-22. Retrieved from http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/hellenicObservatory/CMS%20pdf/Various/Administrative-Reform-in-Greece-%E2%80%93-A-Report-on-a-Keynote-Policy-Symposium-of-the-Hellenic-Observatory,-LSE.pdf.
Dolowitz, D., & Marsh, D. (2000). Learning from abroad: the role of policy transfer in contemporary policy making. Governance, 13(1), 5-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/0952-1895.00121
Domnick, C., & Schoenwald, S. (2016). No pain, no gain? Economic adjustment programmes in Greece and Portugal. KfW Research Focus on Economics, 146. Retrieved from https://www.kfw.de/PDF/Download-Center/Konzernthemen/Research/PDF-Dokumente-Fokus-Volkswirtschaft/Fokus-englische-Dateien/Fokus-Nr.-146-October-2016-Portugal-and-Greece_EN.pdf.
Eichenbaum, M., Rebelo, S., & de Resende, C. (2016). The Portuguese crisis and the IMF. International Monetary Fund Back Ground Paper, 16-02/05, Independent Evaluation Office of the IMF. Washington, D.C.
European Commission (2010). The economic adjustment programme for Greece. European Economy Occasional Papers, 61, Brussels.
European Commission (2011). The economic adjustment programme for Portugal. European Economy Occasional Papers, 79, Brussels.
European Commission (2014a) The second economic adjustment programme for Greece – Fourth Review. European Economy Occasional Papers, 192, Brussels.
European Commission (2014b). The economic adjustment programme for Portugal 2011-2014, European Economy Occasional Papers, 202. Brussels.
European Commission (2015). eGovernment in Portugal, Edition 18.0. Retrieved from https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ckeditor_files/files/eGovernment%20in%20Portugal%20-%20February%202016%20-%20v1_00.pdf.
European Commission (2016a). Compliance Report. The third economic adjustment programme for Greece, First review. Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs, Brussels.
European Commission (2016b). Post-programme surveillance report. Institutional Paper 036 – Portugal. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Evans, M. (2009). Policy transfer in critical perspective. Policy Studies, 30(3), 243-268. https://doi.org/10.1080/01442870902863828
Featherstone, K. (2015). External conditionality and the debt crisis: the ‘Troika’ and public administration reform in Greece. Journal of European Public Policy, 22(3), 295-314. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2014.955123
Freire, A., Lisi, M., Andreadis, I. & Leite Viegas, J. (2014). Political representation in bailed-out Southern Europe: Greece and Portugal compared. South European Society and Politics, 19(4), 413-433. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2014.984381
Gonçalves, S. (2016). Two economic paths out of the crisis?, Greece and Portugal in comparison. Global Economic Dynamics Study, Bertelsmann Stiftung. Retrieved from http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/fileadmin/files/BSt/Publikationen/GrauePublikationen/NW_Portugal_Greece_2016.pdf.
Greece. Memorandum of Understanding for a three-year ESM programme. August 19, 2015.
Greece. Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality. May 2, 2010.
Greece. Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality, March 9, 2012.
Greece: Technical Memorandum of Understanding Accompanying the MoU of the ESM programme. June 16, 2016.
Hardiman, N., Blavoukos, S., Dellepiane-Avellaneda, S., & Pagoulatos, G. (2016). Austerity in the European periphery: the Irish experience. UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy Discussion Paper Series, WP 04 (January).
Heinemann, F., & Grigoriadis, Th. (2016). Origins of reform resistance and the Southern European regime. Empirica, Austrian Institute for Economic Research, Austrian Economic Association, 43(4), 661-691. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10663-016-9342-6
Hood, Ch., Heald, D., & Himaz, R. (eds) (2014). When the party’s over: The politics of fiscal squeeze in perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197265734.001.0001
Karamessini, M. (2012). Sovereign debt crisis: an opportunity to complete the neoliberal project and dismantle the Greek employment model. In: Lehndorff, S. (ed.), A triumph of failed ideas: European models of capitalism in crisis (pp.155–182). Brussels: ETUI.
Kickert, W. (2011). Distinctiveness of administrative reform in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Common characteristics of context, administrations and reforms. Public Administration, 89(3), 801-818. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2010.01862.x
Kickert, W, Randma-Liiv, T. & Savi, R. (2015). Politics of fiscal consolidation in Europe: a comparative analysis. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 81(3), 562–584. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852314564312
Kovras, I. & Loizides, N. (2014). The sovereign debt crisis in Southern Europe: Majoritarian pitfalls?. Comparative Politics, 47(1), 1-20. ISSN 0010-4159. https://doi.org/10.5129/001041514813623164
Ladi, S. (2014). Austerity politics and administrative reform: The Eurozone crisis and its impact upon Greek public administration. Comparative European Politics, 12(2), 184-208. https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2012.46
Lampropoulou, M., & Oikonomou, G. (2016). Theoretical models of public administration and patterns of state reform in Greece. International Review of Administrative Sciences (published online March 14) https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852315611219
Lodge, M., & Hood, Ch. (2012). Into an age of multiple austerities?: Public management and public service bargains across OECD countries. Governance, 25(1), 79-101. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2011.01557.x
Lourtie, P. (2011). Understanding Portugal in the context of the Eurozone crisis. Paper prepared for the conference “Resolving the European Debt Crisis”, Peterson Institute for International Economics & Bruegel. Chantilly, France, September 13-14. Retrieved from https://piie.com/publications/papers/lourtie20110913.pdf.
Magone, J. (2011). The difficult transformation of state and public administration in Portugal: Europeanization and the persistence of neo-patrimonialism. Public Administration, 89(3), 756–782. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.01913.x
Magone, J. (2014). Politics in contemporary Portugal: democracy evolving. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Magone, J., Laffan, B., & Schweiger, Ch. (2016). Core-periphery relations in the European Union: power and conflict in a dualist political economy. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Manitakis, A. (2013), Administrative reform - What has be done, what are we doing?. Article posted to http://law-constitution.web.auth.gr/manitakis/dioikitiki-metarythmisi/ (accessed February 2017).
Marsh, D. &, Sharman, J. (2009), Policy diffusion and policy transfer. Policy Studies, 30(3), 269-288. https://doi.org/10.1080/01442870902863851
Nunes Silva, C. (2017). Political and administrative decentralization in Portugal: Four decades of democratic local government. In: Nunes Silva, C., & Ján, B. (eds), Local government and urban governance in Europe (pp. 9-32). The Urban Book Series, Springer International Publishing.
OECD (2011). Greece: Review of the central administration. OECD Public Governance Reviews. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264167551-en
OECD (2013). Portugal: Reforming the State to promote growth, OECD “Better Policies” Series, OECD Publishing.
Ongaro, E. (2009). Public management reform and modernization. Trajectories of administrative change in Italy, France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. Cheltenham UK - Northampton, MA USA: Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781849802284
Ongaro, E. (2014). The relationship between the new European governance emerging from the fiscal crisis and administrative reforms: qualitatively different, quantitatively different, or nothing new? A Plea for a Research Agenda. Administrative Culture, 15(1), 10-20.
Pagoulatos, G. (2013). The Greek economy is not adjusting. In: ELIAMEP, Greek Myths and Reality (pp.6-13). Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ELIAMEP_BROOKINGS-Greek-Myths-and-Reality.pdf.
Pappas, T., & O’Malley, E. (2014). Civil compliance and “political luddism”. Explaining variance in social unrest during crisis in Ireland and Greece. American Behavioral Scientist, 58(12), 1592 – 1613. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764214534663
Peters, G. (2008), The Napoleonic tradition. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 21(2), 118-135. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550810855627
Peters, G. (2011). Governance responses to the fiscal crisis: comparative perspectives. Public Money & Management, 31(1), 75–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2011.545551
Pollitt, Ch. (2015). Be prepared? An outside-in perspective on the future public sector in Europe. Public Policy and Administration, 31(1), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952076715590696
Portugal. Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality. May 17, 2011.
Provopoulos, G. (2014). The Greek financial crisis – from Grexit to Grecovery. Speech by Mr George A. Provopoulos, Governor of the Bank of Greece, for the Golden Series lecture at the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), London, 7 February.
Reis, R. (2015). Looking for a success: the euro crisis adjustment programs. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Conference Draft, September 10-11. https://doi.org/10.1353/eca.2015.0010
Rocha, O., & Zavale B. (2015). Financial crisis adjustment and state reform: The case of Portugal. Global Journal of Political Science and Administration, 3(1), 10-20. ISSN 2054-6343.
Sapir, A., Wolff, G., De Sousa, C., & Terzi, A. (2014). The Troika and financial assistance in the euro area: successes and failures. Study on the request of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, European Parliament, Directorate General for Internal Policies, Economic Governance Support Unit (EGOV), Brussels.
Sotiropoulos, D. (2004). Southern European public bureaucracies in comparative perspective. West European Politics, 27(3), 405-422. https://doi.org/10.1080/0140238042000228077
Spanou, C. (2008). State reform in Greece: responding to old and new challenges. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 21(2), 150-173. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550810855645
Spanou, C. (2012). The quandary of administrative reform. Institutional and performance modernization., In: Kalyvas, S., Pagoulatos, G., & Tsoukas, H. (eds), From stagnation to forced adjustments: reforms in Greece, 1974-2010 (pp.171-194). New York: Columbia University Press.
Spanou, C. (2015). Administrative reform and policy conditionality in Greece. Administration and Public Employment Review, 1, 31-54.
Spanou, C., & Sotiropoulos, D. (2011). The odyssey of administrative reforms in Greece, 1981–2009: a tale of two reform paths. Public Administration, 89(3), 723–737. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.01914.x
Teixeira, A., Silva, E., & Mamede, R. (eds) (2014). Structural change, competitiveness and industrial policy: painful lessons from the European periphery. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Véron, N. (2016). The International Monetary Fund’s role in the euro-area crisis: financial sector aspects. Bruegel Policy Contribution, Issue n˚13. Retrieved from http://bruegel.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/PC-13-2016.pdf.
Zahariadis, N. (2016). Powering over puzzling? Downsizing the public sector during the Greek sovereign debt crisis. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 18(5), 464-478, https://doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2013.861971
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
