Last December, downtown Athens experienced three nights of street battles, arson and looting that became headlines in the international press. We argue that the reasons for this extreme social turbulence are related to the regulatory and institutional rigidities that still prevail in Greece’s economy in spite of the strong growth that it enjoyed till recently and which was as a result of specific factors that can be identified. Furthermore we describe the pattern of state intervention, institutional sclerosis and high administrative costs that secure and allocate rents to interests groups which obstruct all efforts to reduce these rents and to open up the economy. In particular, we argue that these, numerous, rent seeking groups curtail competition in the product and services markets, increase red tape and administrative burdens and actively seek to establish opacity in all administrative and legal processes in order to form an environment in which they will be able to increase the rents they extract.

των Θοδωρή Πελαγίδη* και Μιχάλη Μητσόπουλου**
1. Εισαγωγή: η διαφθορά και οι ομάδες
Εάν η διαφθορά στη χώρα μας είχε πρόσωπο, θα απολάμβανε σίγουρα την υψηλότερη αναγνωρισιμότητα. Πρόκειται, όπως πια όλοι ομολογούν, για μια ενδημική κατάσταση στην ελληνική καθημερινότητα. Οι έλληνες πολίτες, οι ψηφοφόροι ή οι εντολείς, όπως οι οικονομολόγοι τους αποκαλούν, ως άτομα δυσαρεστούνται από την [...]