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The troika and Greek welfare state reform: austerity from start to finish or some degree of social investment?

Birkemeyer, Lars Henrik (2019) The troika and Greek welfare state reform: austerity from start to finish or some degree of social investment?

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Abstract:This bachelor thesis contributes to the academic debate on the direction of welfare state reform in times of crisis by analysing the three economic adjustment programmes imposed by the troika on Greece in exchange for substantial financial loans regarding the extent to which the programmes’ policy conditions on welfare state reform aimed at austerity or social investment. To this end, the Memoranda of Understanding of the three adjustment programmes from 2010 to 2018 detailing the troika’s policy conditions were selected as data for the qualitative content analysis. Two rival expectations were formulated based on two competing hypotheses in the literature on welfare state change in times of a (global) crisis, the efficiency and the compensation hypothesis. Based on the efficiency hypothesis, it was expected that the troika saw no room for social investment and relied exclusively on austerity measures. Following the compensation hypothesis, it was expected that the troika acknowledged public claims for compensation to some extent and included social investment policies to a certain degree. Findings are more in line with the compensation hypothesis, mainly because of the introduction of universal health care coverage and a general minimum income scheme in the third economic adjustment programme.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:88 social and public administration, 89 political science
Programme:Management Society and Technology BSc (56654)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/78968
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