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Book abstract:
This book is a story of reconstruction, and whilst it is the story of Greece in her post-war struggle to become a full-blown liberal democracy it may offer guidance for other situations currently facing the same problems. It does so in an interesting context which might glibly be captioned - 'show me the money'! The central focus of the analysis of this 50 year period in Greek history is the state-finance connection and its development.
The work is organised over eight chapters and the first offers the background, central theme and methodology. Chapter two addresses the post-war economic and financial policies up to 1973-74 with particular reference to the dependencies consequent upon the international Cold War environment and the Bretton Woods economic order. The influence of foreign financial and industry policy models upon the institutions and policies of post-war development finance are discussed in chapter three, which looks at the role of the banking institutions and the implications for industrial development. Chapter four explores the financial troubles of the 1970s and 1980s and the implications they had for the international allocation of power and consequent pressures on Greek economic and financial policies and the socio-political outcomes. The importance of central bank independence to the domestic financial liberalisation features strongly in chapters five and six which analyse the politics, policies, policy making and political economy of Greece in the second half of the 1980s and into the 1990s. The maturity of the new political economy of financial liberalisation and globalisation, encompassing the EMU and its financial and economic implications, are explored in chapter seven. The final chapter draws together some of the main findings of the work and considers that the developmental state has indeed matured into a stabilisation state and that the state-finance connection has been an important feature in that rise to maturity.
The work will interest students, scholars, policy researchers, economists and all those interested the developmental process from underdevelopment status to membership of an advanced economic community, be it Eurozone or other.
George Pagoulatos is Assistant Professor of Politics at the Athens University of Economics and Business.
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