GINI Country Report: Growing Inequalities and their Impacts in Greece

The aim of this country report for Greece is to present and examine key patterns and trends in the inequality ‘drivers’, highlight their potential impacts in the social, political and cultural spheres and the available evidence in that regard, and point to the role that various interest groups have played in shaping the institutions and policies that both created and sought to ameliorate the various inequalities and their socio-economic manifestations. Greece represents a topical case study in light of the politico-economic developments which the country went through over the last four decades. Starting with the transition to democracy in 1974, Greece began its long, still incomplete, and as of lately precarious, socio-economic convergence towards the advanced European countries. The first phase, which lasted from 1974 to 1981, involved fast (economic) growth rates, low (and declining) unemployment rates, but slow progress regarding the social emancipation and integration of the disadvantaged groups of the population. The second phase, 1982-1994, showed considerable progress towards increasing the capacity of disadvantaged individuals and groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. Central to this process was the large expansion of the public sector.