Retrogression disguised as ‘Innovation’: The case of the ‘Executive State’ in Greece

It has been argued that the recently established model of the ‘Executive State’ in Greece has the potential to enhance the coordinated and effective action of the administration. The question is: to what end and for whose benefit? From Carl Schmitt’s call for a strong state to save the German economy in 1932 to New Public Management and the new Executive State, there is a thread that connects various theoretical views on the role of the state in dealing with crisis situations. This chapter will discuss elements of innovation in administration in the context of the last decade of socio-political developments in Greece: from the crisis legislation that has been introduced through the form of Memorandums of Understanding, to the legislative innovation of the ‘Executive State’ introduced with Act 4622/2019. These forms of policymaking will be approached in the light of the theoretical work on ‘authoritarian liberalism’. This concept denotes a critical view of the role of modern states in a capitalist economy, which requires a combination of strong central administrations, which are capable of facilitating conditions of profitability for private initiative, and depoliticized processes. Approaching law and administration together with issues of political economy necessitates a focus on the structural function of the administrative state in mediating the contradictions of a capitalist economy. The ‘Executive State’ will therefore be approached as an attempt to institutionalize the model of crisis law-making so as to accommodate the content of law-making, which continues the restriction of political and social rights.