‘The Greek Crisis: Causes and Alternative Strategies’ by Stavros Mavroudeas in ‘Crisis, Movement, Strategy: The Greek Experience’, Brill 2018

Brill is publishing a collective volume (edited by P.Sotiris) in its Historical Materialism Book Series.

I have contributed a chapter titled ‘The Greek Crisis: Causes and Alternative Strategies’.

The chapter surveys the competing explanations of the Greek crisis and the alternative strategies (associated with these explanations) proposed in order to surpass this crisis. The competing explanations are categorized in three main groups (Mainstream, Radical and Marxist). It is argued that the Marxist explanations can grasp better the deep structural character of the Greek crisis.

Two basic alternative economic strategies are recognized and each one is further subdivided in two versions. The first main alternative proposes restructuring the Greek economy within the European integration. It is subdivided in (a) the strategy of the IMF-EU-ECB Economic Adjustment Programmes (EAPs) and (b) the strategy of renegotiation of the EAPs towards a less pro-cyclical and less austere policy mix. It is argued that the first version is an overambitious bourgeois strategy that endangers the politico-economic stability of the system. The second version is an incoherent and unreliable strategy because it depends upon the partial success of the first version. The second main alternative proposes restructuring of the Greek economy outside (partially or totally) the European integration. It is subdivided in two versions: (a) a strategy of restructuring outside the European Monetary Union (EMU) but within the European Union (EU) and (b) a strategy of restructuring through complete disengagement from the EU. It is argued that the first version is a middle-of-the-road approach that disregards the deeply structural character of the Greek crisis. On the contrary, the second version offers a coherent alternative strategy answering the problem of the crisis from the perspective of the working class.

 

The volume’s link, containing additional information, is the following:

https://brill.com/view/title/26716?format=HC

 

 

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