“A state is an organized political entity that holds a monopoly on the exercise of legal authority over a defined geographic area. (…) This usually includes a set of organizations that have jurisdiction to make and enforce rules governing the population of a society within specific geographic boundaries. The state has government, laws, and recognized sovereignty.” This is Wikipedia’s description of the state. Understandable.
It is incomprehensible how we perceive the term and the role of the State here in Greece. Let me explain: only recently have the news highlighted cases of government officials who set up “shops” or “criminal organisations”, taking advantage of their positions in various public services to commit illegal acts, of a criminal or criminal nature. For their own benefit and to the detriment of the State, but also of the citizens. Thus, we had the case of the “gang” of tax inspectors from Chalkida, the officials from the Attica region who extorted shopkeepers in the restaurant sector and now we have the case of the ETAD employees.
Very cool. For a few days the opposition parties will denounce the “absolute rot”, the government will put the “knife to the bone” and other familiar things. And what comes next? The small shops that have been built will soon be filled by the next generation of public servants who want to “get the good stuff”. Why is this happening? Because the State is incapable (there is no doubt that it does not want to) of enforcing the rules it establishes and even more so of building strong internal control mechanisms for public services.
And life goes on, until the next revelation of illegal activity within the state.