Table of Contents

Introducing Stateness under Strain: Greece in the European Conundrum
Kostas A. Lavdas

Chapter 1: Junctures of Stateness: The Historical and Regional Context
Kostas A. Lavdas

Chapter 2: State and Sovereignty: Mythical Talos and the Politics of Conventional Rationality
Spyridon N. Litsas

Chapter 3: Sovereignty and International Politics: Interdependence, Self-Help and Survival
Spyridon N. Litsas

Chapter 4: Tackling Greece’s Financial Crisis: A Legal – Institutional Viewpoint
Dimitris V. Skiadas

Afterword: On the Different Ways of Transforming Stateness
Kostas A. Lavdas, Spyridon N. Litsas, Dimitris V. Skiadas

About the Author

Kostas A. Lavdas is Professor of European Politics and Head, Department of Political Science, University of Crete, Greece where he was previously Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Personnel and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Born in Athens in 1964, he studied political science, political sociology, public policy and international relations in Athens, the UK (at LSE and Manchester), and the USA (at MIT). He has published extensively in English, German and Greek on European politics, Greek politics and policy, comparative interest group politics and applied political theory. He has taught (as a Professor, an Associate Professor and a Senior Lecturer) and researched (as a Senior Research Fellow and a Research Associate) at several universities and research centers in Europe and the USA. Author of The Europeanization of Greece: Interest Politics and the Crises of Integration (London / New York: Macmillan / St Martin’s Press, 1997), Politics, Subsidies and Competition: The New Politics of State Intervention in the European Union (with M. Mendrinou) (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1999), Formation and Development of the European Communities (in Greek) (Patras: Hellenic Open University, 2003), Interests and Politics: Interest Organization and Patterns of Governance (in Greek) (Athens: Papazisis, 2004), Politics between the Potential and the Familiar (in Greek) (Athens: Sideris, 2010), and A Republic of Europeans: Civic Potential in a Liberal Milieu (with D. Chryssochoou) (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2011). Co-editor (with D. Chryssochoou) of European Unification and Political Theory: The Challenge of Republicanism (in Greek) (Athens: Sideris, 2004) and (with D. Chryssochoou and D. Xenakis) of Directions in the Study of International Relations (in Greek) (Athens: Sideris, 2010). Author of numerous chapters in international volumes (The Political Economy of Privatization, Verbaende und Verbandssysteme in Westeuropa, Republicanism in Theory and Practice, The New Balkans, among others) and articles in distinguished international journals (including European Journal of Political Research, West European Politics, Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Politics, among others). He regularly serves as a referee for international journals (including Political Studies, European Journal of Political Theory, Journal of European Public Policy, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and others) and research funding institutions (including the ESRC of the UK). He has served as a member of the Board at the Hellenic Center for European Studies (EKEM) and at the Center for Educational Research (KEE). In 2007-2008 he was the Constantine Karamanlis Professor of Hellenic and Southeastern European Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA, and in 2009 he was a Senior Research Fellow at the European Institute, Hellenic Observatory, The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

Spyridon N. Litsas is Assistant Professor of International Relations Theory at the Department of International and European Studies, University of Macedonia, Greece. Born in Chania, Crete in 1974, he studied Politics and European Studies (BA Hons) at the University of Central Lancashire (UK), and International Relations (Ph.D) at the University of Durham (UK). He is the author of the monograph War and Rationality: A Theoretical Analysis, Athens: Poiotita Publications, 2010. In addition, he has published in various scientific journals both in Greek and English and has participated in collective volumes about I.R. Theory and Strategic Analysis. He is a visiting Professor at the Joint Supreme War College of the Hellenic Army, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus, while he is a frequent guest –lecturer at the School of Information Analysis of the Hellenic Army and at the NATO Deployable Corps – H.Q. Thessaloniki. During 2006-2009 was a Research Fellow of the Institute of Defence Analysis (IAA). Last but not least, he is a frequent contributor to major Greek newspapers on international politics issues and I.R. Theory, mainly about the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean, European Politics, Islamic fundamentalism etc.

Dimitrios V. Skiadas is Assistant Professor of European Governance at the Department of International and European Studies at the University of Macedonia, Greece. He was born in Athens, Greece, in 1973. He has studied Law at the University of Athens, Greece, (LL.B), and the University of Durham, UK, (M.Jur & Ph.D.), and has specialised on issues relating to European Union Law, Public Law, Budgetary Law, and Project Management. He has taught courses on European Union Law and other topics regarding his expertise at the University of Durham (Department of Law), the Hellenic Air Force Academy, the University of Athens (Interdepartmental Postgraduate Programme of the Department of Economics and the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications), and the University of Central Greece (Department of Regional Economic Development). His professional record includes the position of Secretary General for Commerce at the Ministry of Development, the position of Special Secretary of European Union and Management of European Programmes at the Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs, the position of Scientific Associate to the Vice President of the Special Permanent Committee of EU affairs at the Hellenic Parliament, as well as a Research Assistantship at the Athens University Institute of Social Insurance, Health and Social Assistance. In the private sector he has been active as Director at a Vocational Training Centre, and he has occupied senior posts in various firms. He is a member of various research organisations and think tanks, such as the European Law Institute at the University of Durham, the Institute for Democracy “Constantinos Karamanlis”, the Political Research Centre of the Department of Political Science and History at Panteion University, the Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, etc. He has served as a member of the Education Committee of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, as member at the Greek Monitoring Team on the Lisbon Strategy and a member of the Monitoring Committee of the Community Support Framework as well as of various Operational Programmes in Greece. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Association of Fellows and Legal Scholars of the Centre for International Legal Studies, Salzburg (Austria). His publications include six books – among them the Theory of Public Expenditure: Institutions and Choices in Greece and the EU (in Greek), (Athens/Thessaloniki: Sakkoulas, 2011) and the European Court of Auditors: The financial conscience of the EU (London: Kogan Page, 2000) - several contributions to collective volumes and books – among them the “Commentary to Art. 310-325 (Budgetary Provisions) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union” in H. Smit, P. Herzog, Chr. Campbell, G. Zagel (ed.), Smit & Herzog on the Law of the European Union, (New Jersey: LexisNexis, 2011, Vol. 4, pp. 310-1 to 325-13) - and several articles in scientific journals, on subjects relating to the areas of his expertise, at national and international level. He is fluent in Greek (native language), English, French and Italian.

Reviews

Most of the scholarship on the recent sovereign debt crisis in Greece has been produced by observers outside of Greece. This book brings together the work of three noted specialists on Greek domestic political economy: Lavdas, and Litsas and Skiadas. Together, the chapters offer analysis of the Greek crisis from eclectic points of view that integrate disparate theories. Making extensive use of available data, the authors examine root causes of the crisis. The book provides ample details on the role of international and domestic institutions in defining and offering solutions for the sovereign debt crisis. From the perspective of the authors, if Greece is to remain in the EU as well as remain engaged in the global economy, its domestic institutions need to be modernized and reformed. The empirical and policy analysis offered here will be of interest to scholars of the EU, as the evidence presented reveals how the deepening of integration in Europe is not a simple, linear process. Moreover, efforts to integrate Greece, and by extension other economies, are limited by the structure of and effectiveness of domestic institutions. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, research, and professional collections.
*CHOICE*

Most analysts have addressed the euro crisis as an economic issue. Yet everyone concedes that its most important causes, consequences, and remedies are essentially political. This is one of the first books that addresses the deeper political significance of the crisis, focusing primarily on Europe's troubled relationship with Greece and highlighting the ways in which southern European political systems, societies, and economies have long functioned according to fundamentally different rules from those followed elsewhere in Europe.
*Foreign Affairs*

[T]his is an informative, passionate account of the Greek crisis in its European setting. Students of European politics will find a lot of interesting material in this scholarly book.
*Journal of Contemporary European Studies*

[This book] is a ground-breaking attempt to examine the crisis in the Eurozone's southern region. . . .The book offers a particularly detailed, balanced but deeply engaged account of the acute Greek crisis in its evolving European setting. . . .By examining the particular and the general, by filling the analysis with details as well as with broad strokes, the book has become an indispensable guide to the academic approach to an adventure that will mark these countries -- and the European project as a whole -- for years to come. It should be read by students, scholars and practitioners concerned with the critical questions of European politics and political economy, sovereignty, democratic options and policy choices.
*Journal of Economic and Social Thought*

This is a timely, well-written and innovative reflection on the implications of the European economic crisis on the adaptability of the domestic state. It should be read by students and scholars concerned with the big questions of sovereignty, democratic politics, policy model and choice. And it is very much on target with its plea for extensive liberalisation in Greece, cushioned with a respect for sovereign choices.
*Kevin Featherstone, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor of European Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science*