Mate, I’ve lived and worked in several countries in Europe and come from a country - Portugal - which in many ways is culturally very similar to Greece, at least judging by conversations I had with Greek friends and colleagues over the years.
In my experience and view, Politics in general, including government, are definitelly the result of what a society considers “normal” and this doesn’t apply to just the Southern European countries but also in my own experience to Western and Northern European ones.
Strictly speaking and as you say they are not the same, it’s more of one being a reflection of the other: what politicians get away with reflects society’s idea of “normal” and things like the cultural view on how strictly people should follow rules: in a country where the idea that “following rules is for suckers” is widespread, Politicians too will not tend to “stay within the rules” with the powers they’ve been entrusted with.
So for example, Corruption is Portugal is IMHO the natural reflection of a culture where Cronyism is widespread and pretty much standard all over the place (and, if you think about it, the Moral distance from “trading favours with paying strangers using the power entrusted to you” to “trading favours with friends using the power entrusted to you” is a lot less than the Moral distance to “thinking one has the responsability to not abuse power entrusted to oneself for one’s own gain directly or indirectly”) and the Law is seen as indicative rather than a set of boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed (except when it comes to violence).
Interestingly and paradoxically, when things do start to change, acceptance of Corruption falls and and the fight against Corruption improves, the Perception of Corruption goes up because there are many more people being caught and convicted for Corruption and that ends up in the News, so it looks like there is more Corruption than before due to more News about it, when it’s actually the opposite.
Mate, I’ve lived and worked in several countries in Europe and come from a country - Portugal - which in many ways is culturally very similar to Greece, at least judging by conversations I had with Greek friends and colleagues over the years.
In my experience and view, Politics in general, including government, are definitelly the result of what a society considers “normal” and this doesn’t apply to just the Southern European countries but also in my own experience to Western and Northern European ones.
Strictly speaking and as you say they are not the same, it’s more of one being a reflection of the other: what politicians get away with reflects society’s idea of “normal” and things like the cultural view on how strictly people should follow rules: in a country where the idea that “following rules is for suckers” is widespread, Politicians too will not tend to “stay within the rules” with the powers they’ve been entrusted with.
So for example, Corruption is Portugal is IMHO the natural reflection of a culture where Cronyism is widespread and pretty much standard all over the place (and, if you think about it, the Moral distance from “trading favours with paying strangers using the power entrusted to you” to “trading favours with friends using the power entrusted to you” is a lot less than the Moral distance to “thinking one has the responsability to not abuse power entrusted to oneself for one’s own gain directly or indirectly”) and the Law is seen as indicative rather than a set of boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed (except when it comes to violence).
Interestingly and paradoxically, when things do start to change, acceptance of Corruption falls and and the fight against Corruption improves, the Perception of Corruption goes up because there are many more people being caught and convicted for Corruption and that ends up in the News, so it looks like there is more Corruption than before due to more News about it, when it’s actually the opposite.