‘Privatization’ and legitimacy
The idea that the civil service could hire managers from the private sector for difficult missions is supported by the success of the measure in dealing with the chronic backlog in the issuing of pensions. It is natural that most respondents in an opinion poll (conducted by Pulse and published in Kathimerini Thursday) approved of Labor Minister Kostis Hatzidakis’ initiative, as it solved a problem that had affected many thousands of people for many years. Also, it involved the distribution of money. So, all those who retired, their families, and those heading for retirement, would welcome whatever improves the system. Perhaps that is why the reactions to the private “invasion” of this bastion of the civil service were not as ferocious as expected. What would happen, though, if there was an attempt to apply this measure to more parts of the public administration?
It depends, of course, on the magnitude of the problem that private individuals will be called on to solve, on how important it is for a great number of citizens. If it is of vital importance, such as the staffing of health units, citizens may not care about the reactions of public hospital doctors. However, those doctors will be justified in responding that the state would do better by improving their work conditions and pay, so that more doctors would be attracted by state hospitals. Employees in other public sector jobs would make the same argument, as they saw their own chances of advancement fading. Furthermore, attracting people from the private sector demands higher pay. This would provoke such a reaction that either the measure would be stillborn, or wages of all in that agency would rise accordingly.
Those who will work on such an initiative will, no doubt, take into consideration such problems and will propose solutions based on other countries’ best practices. But it is most unlikely that they will be able to get past the great obstacle which is the civil war that has been raging since the first days of the Greek state. The conflict involves those “inside,” who see those “outside” as lacking all legitimacy, as trying to grab all that they (the “insiders”) have built with effort and sacrifice, and the “outsiders,” who see their own efforts (their taxes) being sacrificed to a public administration that is dysfunctional. A public administration which, as long as it remains the prisoner and captor of political parties, as long as it fights against meritocracy, snuffs out the efforts and prospects of all.
