New legal environment of the Greek Social
and Solidarity Economy: Impediments and opportunities for the development of
the sector
By Dr Konstantinos D. Geormas
Paper Presented at the 2nd International Forum of
Cooperative Law, 26-29 September, Athens, Greece
One of my main arguments that I have put
forward in my writings in order to explain some features of the development of
social entrepreneurship in the greek context is first the notion of the cartel
party system (a notion introduced by Richard and Mair) and secondly the
argument that in Greece a weak civil society confronts and deals with a weak
state.
That is not to say that organizations of
the social economy don’t spring up as expressions of the needs of civil
society. But it is to say that when we speak of social economy in Greece we
have to stress from the outset, that many problems that arise in the
development of social economy in Greece are affected from the characteristics
of the “cartel party system”. It is not here the place to elaborate more on
this notion, but I point out that the main feature of the system is that the
state ceases to represent the society and becomes a tool for the reproduction
of the party system. A few of the consequences that are of interest for us
here, is the lack, on behalf of the state, of long term planning, indifference
for evaluation of implemented policies, indifference of measuring the social
impact of the implemented policies. The central feature of all policies are
oriented to the reproduction of the power of the party and not for the interest
of the society (although sometimes fulfill needs of it). As a consequence,
corruption and clientalism are rampant, as well as absence of the rule of law, or
rather, a lax implementation of laws.
