Agora
Posts in Greece
Samaras seeks vote of confidence and moment of history
Pop quiz: When was the last time Greece held elections at the end of the government’s four-year term? It was in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell, F.W. de Klerk started dismantling apartheid in South Africa, Soviet troops left Afghanistan, Chinese students demonstrated and were shot in Tiananmen Square and dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was executed in Romania. It is right up there with the world’s historic events.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (385), Greece (496)
Greek debt: A case of learned helplessness?
The concept of learned helplessness was accidentally discovered by psychologists Seligman and Maier back in 1967. They initially observed helpless behaviour in dogs that were conditioned to expect an electrical shock after hearing a tone and they made no attempts to escape, even though they could avoid the shock by simply jumping over a low barrier. They developed a cognitive expectation that nothing they did would prevent or eliminate the shocks.
Contributor: Yiannis Mouzakis
Categories: Europe (281), Economy (329), Greece (496)
Does Greece need a third programme?
During his visit to Berlin this week, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras repeatedly emphasised that Greece does not require a third financial support programme. In his conversation with Chancellor Angela Merkel he highlighted that the Greek sovereign was able to successfully return to international bond markets in April after a three-year forced hiatus.
Contributor: Jens Bastian
Categories: Europe (281), Economy (329), Greece (496)
Run this way: The recurring pattern of Greek leaders
As the Greek general elections of May (and then June) 2012 approached, every poor unfortunate European politician attempted to grab a moment in the spotlight by pontificating on whether Greece should or should not be in the single currency. While the euro vultures picked at Greece's carcass, thousands of fear-stricken Greeks withdrew their money from local banks.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (385), Economy (329), Greece (496)
The television will not be revolutionised
When Prime Minister Antonis Samaras decided to close down public broadcaster ERT in June 2013, then government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou stood in front of TV cameras and called the service “a characteristic case of a unique lack of transparency... that ends today.”
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (385), Greece (496)