The Greek Welfare State under Permanent Strain: Transformations, Reforms and Pressures

The Greek welfare state has faced multidimensional crises from the first period of its existence until now. From the traditional unstable democratic and institutional context to the financial crisis, which exacerbated social problems, and from the latter to the pandemic, which posed challenges for the immediate handling of the health needs as well as long term necessities for measures in order to address the economic shortcomings of the pandemic, the Greek welfare state has been in a permanent strain. This study aims to present the main historical as well as contemporary challenges of the Greek welfare state and to draw some conclusions about its role in the post-covid era as well as to emphasize the main directions in order to address old and new social problems, always with reference to relative empirical data.