A New Economic Governance Model for Greece in the 21^st Century

The mission and mandate of economic governance in Greece and its accompanying institutional architecture requires a re-alignment in order to conform to the realities of the new global economy of the 21st century. Two recent events, one foundational and the other cataclysmic, have precipitated the need for a new vision and a new conceptual framework for revitalizing and modernizing Greece’s economic governance architecture. These two defining milestones are the emergence of a new global economy and the devastating consequences of the 2008 global financial crisis on the Greek economy.

This paper proposes a new conceptual framework for reforming the public administration in Greece that is congruent with the structural changes precipitated by the new global economy of the 21st century. The Great Recession and the contemporary jobless recovery provide the contextual narrative for redefining macroeconomic policy with regard to achieving good economic governance.

A new set of ten interactive and complementary principles for good governance in the 21st century are proposed. These governance principles should be accompanied with a modern institutional governance architecture. Furthermore, the structural qualities and resilient infrastructure of a revitalized governance model must be able to withstand the future economic shocks and interface effectively with the new global economy of the 21st century.

In essence, this paper sets a new economic governance agenda and designs the supporting governance infrastructure that has the administrative capability and the capacity to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities confronting Greece in the 21st century. All of this, for the purpose of designing a governance infrastructure that interacts more effectively with global institutions; national, regional and local governments; economic, social and political networks; community and grassroots organizations and civil society.