The deepening of Greek democracy is a crucial step towards economic recovery

Yet there is another part of Syriza’s plan that is perhaps even more crucial to consolidating the socio-economic stability and independence of the country in the long-term. This is theempowerment of the Parliament as a means of deepening Greek Democracy. Although this may not seem relevant to the economic resurrection of the country, a closer look at the issue reveals that it is indispensable to building and sustaining a healthy economy.

A typical characteristic of Metapolitefsi, the system that emerged in Greece after the fall of the Junta in 1974, is the compromised role of the Parliament as the source of democratic legitimacy. Instead legitimacy in Greece has been achieved at the informal level amongst the ruling economic and political elites and the social groups with preferential links to them. Socio-economically, this has been expressed via a skewed type of corporatism where interest groups with close bonds to the political parties enjoyed privileges and preferential access to public resources.

The enormous tax evasion and the excessive spending of public funds are the stark manifestations and costly implications of this socio-political equilibrium.

On 6 February 2015 Ms Zoi Konstantopoulou became the new President (Speaker) of the Greek Parliament receiving 235 out of 298 votes, a historical high record. In her inaugural speech she announced that under her presidency the Parliament would offer no more legitimacy to these practices. She declared that transparency, egalitarianism will be fortified, and that the relations between the Parliament and the civil society would be strengthened and consolidated. She also asked the Parliament to contribute to the governmental efforts to consolidate public debt and to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.

Ms Konstantopoulou’s plan is to upgrade the legislative and control functions of the Parliament and if successful it will greatly improve the quality of Democracy in Greece.

With regards to the legislative role of the Parliament the newly elected President announced the revision of its Operating Rules and the improvement of the quality of the proposed legislation. These goals are of great importance and if achieved they will be a big step towards paving the way to the post-crisis political order.

Up to now the Parliament has been asked to process lengthy and complex draft laws, which often include clauses that are irrelevant to their subject and often facilitate specific interest groups or even individuals. Although civil society organisations are invited and participate to the Parliamentary Committees that discuss the drafts the final law text very rarely reflects the common ground social partners reach during the discussions. Instead interest groups promote their preferences via the amendments their political patrons/parliamentarians submit during the hearing of the draft law. Another degenerating practice is promoting legislation as urgent thereby reducing the time for Parliamentary control. Finally, since the beginning of the crisis many of the austerity measures have been passed through unconstitutional legislative acts.

As a result of these practices, the Greek legal order comprises a labyrinth of complex laws that are not systematically codified and thus are hard to be applied and monitored.

With regards to Parliamentary control and accountability Ms Konstantopoulou announced her intention to reboot the investigations of all misconduct cases the Greek judiciary has forwarded to Parliament and whose investigation has been pending. She specifically stated that ‘the Parliament cannot operate as the laundry of scandals or the cemetery of penal cases’ and explicitly referred to the  Siemens bribery scandal and a further scandal in the area of defense spending. Finally, Ms Konstantopoulou announced that she would be reinforcing the monitoring procedures as a common practice of the past Greek governments was to evade parliamentary control and avoid responding to the questions of the deputies and citizens.

An indicative example of this practice is the previous government’s refusal to account for the participation of Greek pension funds to the PSI (Private Sector Involvement) and face 12 billion euro loses even though they are public law entities. Neither did the government properly account for their decision to exclude pension funds from the recapitalization programme the following year on the basis that it was open only to private investors. Eventually the question was discussed by the European Parliament.

The new President of the Greek Parliament promised to upgrade the quality of democratic politics. With her statements the implementation of the fourth pillar of the Thessaloniki Programme is set in motion. Another element of this pillar is constitutional amendment. This includes the introduction of referenda and other elements that fortify citizen participation and direct democracy into the Greek polity. It remains to be seen if these initiatives will add depth to Greek democracy and rigour to Greek economic governance.

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Note: this post originally appeared on the PSA blog and is reposted with permission. It represents the views of the author, and not those of Democratic Audit, the LSE. Please read our comments policy before posting. 
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Eleni Xiarchogiannopoulou is a Post-doctoral fellow at Université Libre de Bruxelles and a Scientific Collaborator in Governance of the International Centre for Research on the Economy and the Environment.