GREECE HAS A CHANCE TO END THE STRANGLEHOLD OF “AMORAL FAMILISM”
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
By Nick Stamatakis
In the fall of 1992, as I was attending a graduate seminar on Mediterranean Societies focusing at that day on the rise of the Italian mafia, I mentioned that the then prime minister of Greece (Constantine Mitsotakis – served from 1991 to 1993) was estimated to have at least 5,000 godchildren, mostly in Crete, his political district. The prolonged silence which ensued ended by the professor expressing his amazement jokingly: “You Greeks need to be credited with one more superb contribution to humanity…” (It’s quite astonishing that, although every Greek citizen can attest to the above fact, it is rarely mentioned anywhere in the flood of articles analyzing the country recently – and if you google it you will end up almost empty-handed…)
Rampant nepotism permeates all parts of life in Greece. In an extreme case, as you walk past the office doors at public universities you can see names of professors, assistants and associates all related by kinship. Even further, as all business in Greece, big and small, is a family business, the phenomenon crosses all levels of society. In a country where 65% of all economic activity comes from the public sector (a percentage matched only by soviet communism), it’s very clear how the phenomenon of “amoral familism” (to use Edward Banfield’s celebrated terminology) can put a stranglehold in any reform program. Such was the “Memorandum of Understanding” put in place four years ago by the country’s creditors and signed by the Greek government. Characteristically, the son of the above mentioned politician, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who served as a minister of “Government Reform” the last 30 months, took almost 2 years to fire just a few hundred of the 750,000 public sector employees. In the end he managed to fire mostly those who were sentenced for corruption. How could one expect anything else from the scion of a family responsible for hiring thousands upon thousands of its protégés in the public sector?
Generations of three big families have alternated in power in Greece since the 1950s and their names are internationally known: Karamanlis, Papandreou, Mitsotakis. Three Papandreou (father, son and grandson) served as prime ministers the last 50 years. Just a few days ago Costas Karamanlis, son of Achileas (not to be confused with the former Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, son of Alexander), was overwhelmingly elected as a member of the Greek Parliament in the family’s district of origins in Northern Greece. Both Costases are nephews of Constantine Karamanlis, the maverick politician who served twice as a prime minister (1955-1963 and 1974-1980) and twice as President in the 1980s and 1990s….
Along with a network of less powerful families, the “families’ organizations” comprise the most persistent, almost mafia-style, hierarchical system of patronage and favoritism the world has ever known: nothing really happens in Greece without their blessing, which of course always comes with many strings attached. The political favors are always returned in time: The voter will vote for those who will help hire him and his family in public sector jobs and the businessmen will contribute to the politicians who will in exchange award them government contracts or projects of all sorts. At the top of the food chain are the media kings, whose “families” own television stations and newspapers at the same time as they are allowed to operate big construction companies, therefore exercising tremendous power and demanding the lion’s share of the government’s spending…
Furthermore, this system has expanded their “business” internationally, exchanging favors at a global level. In a notorious case, the above mentioned Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his family received illegal rewards from the German giant Siemens; the company was also found to “spread the wealth” directly to countless politicians and directly to both government parties (New Democracy and PASOK) throughout the last four decades. The scandal was so big that the main witness (the Siemens manager Mihalis Christoforakos) escaped to Germany and is now protected by the same government which proclaims support to deep reforms in Greece, as provided by the Memorandum of Understanding of 2010. Yes, the German government is protecting the main witness of the infamous Siemens bribery scandal, which crossed all levels of family, political party and union power in modern Greece! At the same time all three big families have various degrees of dependence to the U.S. and have in many ways turned into peddlers of American power.
As the newly elected Greek government of Alexis Tsipras tries to abolish the hated “Memorandum” and establish a new agreement to serve the country’s unsustainable debt, it appears that creditors and international leaders have finally realized that no reform in Greece will ever be implemented unless the networks of favoritism and patronage operated by “amoral families” is taken down. Mr.Tsipras’s party, SYRIZA, is new to government and its ministers and political operatives were largely uninvolved in the execution of power in the past; therefore, the country now has a unique opportunity to finally put an end to this corrupt system and thus unleash the remarkable entrepreneurial skills the Greek nation has exhibited throughout its history. It is hoped that any sensible agreement between the newly elected Greek government and its creditors will maintain the austerity measures at the same time as it directs the reformative energy of SYRIZA to dismantle the networks of familism and knock down a deeply corrupt political system. It will be definitely a wonder of a transformation to witness…
SHORT BIO: Nick Stamatakis was born in 1961 in Pireaus, Greece. A graduate of the Law School of the University of Athens, he holds an M.A. and a Ph.D degree from Stony Brook University (1994). His specialty was the Cyprus conflict from the perspective of ethnic identity construction. In the last few years he has focused in geopolitics in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, writing mostly for Greek language web sites. He lives in New York and is a business owner.