Few surprises from Cyprus in the European parliament elections

Ker-Lindsay, James (2014) Few surprises from Cyprus in the European parliament elections. LSE Greece@LSE (27 May 2014). Website.

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Abstract

Crises are both risks and opportunities. They create uncertainty and ambiguity not only because they tend to bring about change but also because they simultaneously point to different directions of policy. Politicians are torn between two opposing forces. They face the challenge of urgently needing to respond to the exigencies of the moment while being tempted by the opportunity to implement long awaited reforms. Response is defined as the short-term effort – e.g., tax increases and spending reductions – to return things back to “normal.” Reform makes deep, structural changes in policies – e.g., tax collection and public employment – to bring about a new “normal.” There are incentives to move in both directions at once which are periodically updated by elections. However, quite often politicians end up using crisis rhetoric to undermine reforms and return back to the same policies that caused the crisis in the first place. Following the Euro-elections, the Greek government of Antonis Samaras appears to be heading in precisely this direction.

Item Type:	Online resource (Website)
Official URL:	http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/greeceatlse/
Additional Information:	© 2014 The Author(s)
Divisions:	European Institute
Subjects:	J Political Science > JC Political theory J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe)
Date Deposited:	31 May 2017 12:49
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2023 19:38
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/79378

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