Dr Aris Trantidis, senior lecturer in International Relations and Politics at the University of Lincoln in the UK, will present an online-only seminar titled “The Curse of Sisyphus: Clientelism and the Greek State” at 7pm, 20 April 2023.
The seminar which is being hosted on Facebook and Youtube, will offer audiences near and far the opportunity to learn about the challenges and crises facing the modern Greek state, with keen insight from Dr Trantidis.
A Greek immigrant to the UK, Dr Trantidis’ expertise is informed by extensive experience in researching and teaching about key problems for democracy, such as corruption, clientelism, autocratisation and crisis management.
He’s been published in leading international journals and is also the author of the book ‘Clientelism and Economic Policy: Greece and the Crisis’.
Dr Trantidis’ interdisciplinary background’s seen him receive degrees from several renowned institutions including King’s College London, the London School of Economics and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
The 20 April seminar will focus keenly on the “challenges and crises facing modern Greece,” Dr Trantidis identifying clientelism as the main “culprit.”
It’s a practice involving the allocation of selective benefits by political actors to their supporters, something embedded in the Greek Government’s party system.
Dr Trantidis makes the argument that this clientelism is responsible for the country’s lackluster state capacity and poor economic performance, its bodies of power occupied by “clientelist networks” with strong connections to the state.
Pointing out, that a similar state of affairs is possible in more advanced economies and consolidated democracies, such as Australia, utilising game theory to explain why countries that follow the path of clientelism are unlikely to escape from the situation.
He argues that governments have avoided implementing reforms against the practice of clientelism and lack an incentive to create a functional system based on rule of law.
Not unlike the figure of Greek mythology Sisyphus, the result has been a cycle of unavoidable austerity followed by periods of fiscal recklessness and corruption.
The online seminar, schedules for 20 April at 7pm, is an opportunity for those interested in understanding the challenges facing modern democracies to gain insights from Dr Trantidis’s extensive research and experience.
