Pension reform in Greece: ‘reform by instalments’ – a blocked process?

Abstract:

The dominant characteristic of the process of pension reform in Greece is policy immobility: key measures rationalising the public PAYG pension system have been characterised as 'extremely urgent' for the last half-century and remain so today. This policy immobility - or 'reform by instalments' - is explained on the basis of key structural features of the Greek pension system, chief amongst which is fragmentation. These features allow short-termism of political actors to thwart reform efforts and to rely on external stimuli to initiate progress. Experience since the mid-1990s, despite some early promise, has largely confirmed traditional patterns.