The challenge of social capital investment in difficult times: the case of Greece

Abstract

The main aim of the implemented governmental policies during the last three years was to fulfill the financial obligations through a harsh tax increase. This led to the implementation of a policy that shrank the middle socio-economic groups and had, in a way, a "reversed redistribution" character. This term actually refers to the "downward redistribution" which undermines the social capital and instead of protecting the vulnerable and marginalized citizens, it adds on the contrary more to those categories. But the investment in social capital is the only way to achieve social cohesion and is not connected with a "downward redistribution" as long as it includes measures in order to "lift" the lowest socio-economic groups in the social pyramid, to levels where they are not any more in danger of social vulnerability and in this way socially equitable welfare can be ensured. The main aim of this paper is to analyze some of the recent implemented policies in Greece which have created conditions of a new poverty and at the same time to draw the priorities for a socially just redistribution by analyzing some theoretical considerations connected with the concepts of solidarity and redistribution, which are basic factors of a social investment strategy.