Difference between revisions of "Fakelaki (Greece)"

The word fakelaki is often used in popular discourse to imply corruption, bribery, or obtaining something by illegitimate means. That said, the fakelaki is an accepted part of everyday life in many parts of Greece, being so commonplace that local people do not perceive it as corruption in the Western sense. This is partially to do with the ambiguous nature of the fakelaki as something between ‘bribe’ and ‘gift’ in local perception. The multivalent contexts in which fakelakia are given, and the conflation of the term with gift-giving, has clouded the explicit morality of the exchange.

The word fakelaki is often used in popular discourse to imply corruption, bribery, or obtaining something by illegitimate means. That said, the fakelaki is an accepted part of everyday life in many parts of Greece, being so commonplace that local people do not perceive it as corruption in the Western sense. This is partially to do with the ambiguous nature of the fakelaki as something between ‘bribe’ and ‘gift’ in local perception. The multivalent contexts in which fakelakia are given, and the conflation of the term with gift-giving, has clouded the explicit morality of the exchange.

Fakelaki has become infamous since the outbreak of the Greek economic crisis of 2009. As of October 2015, this had resulted in three bailout packages amounting to €295 billion administered by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (known as ‘the Troika’) in return for economic reform and restructuring by Greece (Knight 2015a)<ref>Knight, D. 2015a. History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece. New York: Palgrave Macmillan</ref>. International media have repeatedly highlighted the fact that fakelakia, meson (use of contacts), patronage and clientelism (Campbell 1964)<ref>Campbell, J. 1964. Honour, Family and Patronage: A Study of Institutions and Moral Values in a Greek Mountain Community. Oxford: Oxford University Press</ref> in economic transactions are long-standing examples of the ‘bad economic practice’ that provoked Greece’s economic crisis. The Troika set numerous policy goals to be implemented in Greece and aimed at eradicating the ‘fakelaki culture’ and promoting what bureaucrats in Brussels and Berlin term ‘economic modernisation.’

Fakelaki has become infamous since the outbreak of the Greek economic crisis of 2009. As of October 2015, this had resulted in three bailout packages amounting to €295 billion administered by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (known as ‘the Troika’) in return for economic reform and restructuring by Greece (Knight 2015a)<ref>Knight, D. 2015a. History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece. New York: Palgrave Macmillan</ref>. International media have repeatedly highlighted the fact that fakelakia, meson (use of contacts), patronage and clientelism (Campbell 1964)<ref>Campbell, J. 1964. Honour, Family and Patronage: A Study of Institutions and Moral Values in a Greek Mountain Community. Oxford: Oxford University Press</ref> in economic transactions are long-standing examples of the ‘bad economic practice’ that provoked Greece’s economic crisis. The Troika set numerous policy goals to be implemented in Greece and aimed at eradicating the ‘fakelaki culture’ and promoting what bureaucrats in Brussels and Berlin term ‘economic modernisation.’

</div>

</div>