Attracting the powerful. Actors, institutions and policies of foreign investment in Greece

Attracting investments, particularly foreign ones, has become a central political promise in today’s discourse. In Greece of the 2020s, a country suffering from an investment deficit due to a prolonged economic crisis, the ability of a political figure to persuade or entice major investors is presented as a key qualification for which voters are asked to place their trust.

This book argues that attracting investments is not merely a matter of ideology or the individual talent of political leaders but rather a complex socio-political process. Through a discussion of relevant theories (in economics, political economy, and sociology) and two case studies — the legislation on “Strategic Investments” and the investment of the Chinese multinational COSCO in the port of Piraeus — the book explores the following questions:

• What are the characteristics of those who facilitate or seek to impose constraints on large-scale investments?
• How do the opposing “camps” use institutions and scientific knowledge?
• What values do they invoke to legitimize their positions?

Within the pages of the book, readers will find analyses of the profiles of political leaders and technocrats who promote pro-investment policies and their alliances with segments of the business world; the strategies of bureaucrats, labor unions, political movements, and NGOs opposing the granting of “privileges” to major investors; the pro-investment institutions created at the intersection of state and business interests; the political use of economic, legal, and environmental studies; and, finally, the clash of different “public goods” — such as development, environmental protection, and quality of life — surrounding policies aimed at attracting major investments.

This exploration sheds light on the multifaceted dynamics shaping the politics of investment in contemporary Greece.