From the encyclopedia:  Local Government: a) administration without dependence, b) institution that organises the administration of a region by representatives of local communities or a section of a special public organisation without substantial involvement of the state.In the old days, in the era of the dominance of the “katharevousa”,[1] when there was a complete mismatch between a name and its meanings in practice, the expression “κατ’ εὐφημισμόν” was used. This is how local government works in practice, i.e., in complete dependence on the goals of the state administration and with the aim of promoting those matters which it does not wish or does not have the ability to implement. In addition to promoting the persons it wishes to appoint to leading positions in local government institutions, the central government also controls the rates of grants through which the powers delegated to local government can be promoted to a minimum extent. In short, in our everyday language, local government is the step child (= child of inferior status who helps with the chores) of the state administration. Nevertheless, this institutional expression has a comparative advantage: it is in close proximity to the citizens and thus the possibilities of monitoring the events unfolding with, and by, the actions of its representatives, as well as to some extent the possibilities of intervention, are easier. The reflection that preceded is a prelude to a basic review οf the local government period that will end with next October’s elections, which will highlight the people who will play a leading role in the next five-year local government period. We will record our observations below.

Contributing to the inefficiency of the institution of local government is the total absence of any relevant reference to the country’s Constitution. If such a reference existed, it could mitigate the complete fluidity regarding the main characteristics of the institution. Each state government can decide, through its own legislation, on the number of elected officials, on the duration of the municipal government periods, on the electoral system, on the powers of their unilateral and collective bodies, but also on the bulk of their financial resources, which come from the state budget and are distributed through grants. As an extension of this, the government at the time decided that the 2019 local government elections would be held under a proportional representation electoral system even though the general political climate was extremely conflicting, the ambitions of the leaders in the local government groups were unrestrained and, consequently, decision-making by the collective bodies was highly problematic. Some corrective legislative interventions by the next government, but mainly the holding of meetings of the collective bodies by teleconferencing, balanced to a certain extent the chaos that had been created. The newest legislation, through which the municipal elections of next October will be held, brought back the pre-existing electoral system, which strengthened the majority combination and provided it with an enhanced majority in the collective bodies, but it also eliminated one of the few positive provisions of the previous electoral system: the election of members of the Municipal Communities with separate ballots and their mandatory financial support from the municipal budget for the execution of small maintenance projects of the local infrastructure. The abolition of this arrangement fully confirms the aforementioned trend towards full control of local government by the central administration.

In our region, Mani, the strong negative effects of the electoral system of the simple proportional representation were also felt and created dissonance. In the municipality of Western Mani in particular, the mayor had to cooperate with two minority municipal groups in order for the institution to function properly. Two favourable circumstances, as the “deus ex machina” of the ancient Greek tragedies, balanced to a certain extent the inability to produce work, even the maintenance of critical municipal infrastructure, by the local governments of our region. We are referring to: a) the assignment of the Ministry of Interior to our compatriot politician who, due to the need to restore public infrastructure from the wildfires of 2020 and 2021 in Laconia, financed Eastern Mani with large sums of money and b) the election of our compatriot to the position of Regional Governor who, when he was given the legal opportunity, tried to counteract the permanent marginalisation of Mani in the financing of public infrastructure projects. A great opportunity for qualitative and quantitative upgrading of the territorial area of Mani, through the EU-funded program “Integrated Spatial Investments” was underutilised. Delayed or even faulty drafting of technical studies for necessary public projects, underfunding of private investments in the tourism sector, emphasis on one-time cultural actions, or in some cases with directed beneficiaries, minimise the footprint on the Mani area of this significant amount of funding which, unfortunately, is not repeatable.

It seems that in our region the lessons of the past are reflected when they collide with personal ambitions. These lessons, which have arisen from objective and subjective reasons (small population, great distance from decision-making centres, individualistic views of things, reduced willingness of social contribution, etc.), for the rational thinkers, lead to self-evident tendencies towards universal cooperation, which is the only way to produce improved results. It seems, in the first ten days of August, as this text is being written, that instead of joint activities in view of the October municipal elections, a more intense division will emerge. It seems that there is a complete ignorance of the risk of even greater degradation of the area even though the external economic conditions, due to the quality of the geographic and climatic environment, are favourable…

THE EDITORIAL BOARD

[1] archaic official language used by the Greek state until 1976 when it was replaced by “dimotiki” (everyday colloquial language)

Productivity expresses how efficiently and effectively resources (capital, labour, entrepreneurship, technology) are used to produce goods and services. This definition applies both at a) the level of business-household and b) the level of business sectors or government entities. At the business-household level, productivity is easy to establish, because effective management is immediately ascertainable and can be determined by simple observation. At the sectoral level, the observations are relatively more difficult to establish, but again, through the multi-information that is characteristic of our times, reliable findings can be made.

At the third and last level, the state level, productivity results from effective management in the areas of state activity (mainly public finance, defence and security, public health and public education). At this level, the initial findings are relatively easy, as they are derived from the opinion of the direct beneficiaries, i.e., the citizens, through the electoral process. However, at this level, because of its large size, the many conflicting or hidden interests and the many methods of deception that can be deployed, it is often the case that the data is false and misleading and does not correspond to real facts. The state of bankruptcy Greece found itself in over the past decade is irrefutable proof of this. The main cause of the apparent and false prosperity, as it was finally revealed, was not the increased productivity of the state administration, but the concealment and the methodical downplaying of the country’s extensive borrowing and its consequences on the finances of its citizens.

It can be seen, from the course of public finances especially in the last five years, that state administrations and the general management of the national economy are going through an honest and effective phase, with productivity being the compass for the formulation of individual policy proposals in the management of all sectors. This is a comforting fact that can lead to a first conclusion that for the general economic development of the country, the content of the concept of “productivity” could be a dominant factor in the sphere of economic activity at the family and business level; from these two levels it can then be passed on in a generalized form to the third level, the state development priorities and the legislative regulations that will give them elements of timelessness.

As we attempt a more specific approach to the sensitive economic data of the country, our attention focuses on the negative trade balance and the soaring trade deficit recorded in 2022, which climbed to a 14-year record level, despite the impressive rise in exports, which were nevertheless outstripped by imports. A brief look at these figures leads to the conclusion that there is indeed an improvement in the productivity of the goods manufactured in the country, as reflected by the significant increase in exports, but the higher increase in the value of imported goods is a warning bell of the risk of creating a permanent economic imbalance. These findings, in the final analysis, prove that our country is lagging behind in the industrial sector, especially in the field of processing raw materials through vertical integration of production up to the final product to be used. By improving productivity in the industrial sector in this way, many of the imported products can be substituted by domestically produced ones, thus improvinge   the trade balance. Certainly, the promotion of this objective will need to be based on the improvement of productivity (labour, capital, entrepreneurship, technological applications) and its positive consequences will be reflected in employment, return on capital and even an increase in government revenues, which will be available for broader social purposes.

The search for a living model that had shaped high productivity at the first level (family-microenterprise) leads to the way the family economy and microenterprises operated in Mani for many centuries until the 1980s. The difficulties in maximising the performance of small farm properties due to the infertile soil were addressed by making full use of all available means: the continuous cultivation of fields alternatively with cereals and legumes; the enhancement of soil performance by recycling animal waste; the mutual exchange of working animals for farm work (ploughing, threshing, transport); the collective mobilisation of labour for oil harvesting; generalised domestic livestock farming for the production and consumption of livestock products that were sufficient for family needs and usually in surplus. Even more so, by making use of the seasonally surplus workforce, securing wages for agricultural work in the richer neighbouring areas of Messinia and Laconia. In the Maniot economy, concepts of quality of life that appear with intensity in our days, such as the protection of the environment from extraordinary weather phenomena (with automatic generalised mobilisation of all available means to deal with fires and floods) and minimisation of the volume of waste (with total recycling of all by-products of agricultural and livestock production) were integrated into everyday life and their application was self-evident. Thus, the increase in productivity (of land, labour, available farming resources) was combined with the quality of life, which is still a concern in our time…

THE EDITORIAL BOARD

In Mani with its strong family traditions, the horizons of interest of its inhabitants were, for many centuries, limited. In the old closed societies of small villages, these interests were confined to the interior of the patriarchal family or perhaps to their village boundaries. People built their houses on barren land, cultivated the few fertile soils and grazed their livestock in common pastures. Only in exceptional circumstances, those that threatened the long-term balance of space and security of life, did Maniots undertake joint actions designed to safeguard pre-existing situations. In our century, however, these closed small societies have opened up permanently. The sources of income have also opened up with them. Barren land has, in many locations, become more profitable than fertile land, and its residential development yields a lot more income than many fertile lands of the same size. Despite all this, joint management, based on the the whole land area, has not made significant progress. Joint management efforts have been limited to uncoordinated loud protests and incomplete approaches to the development of new situations, which are the consequence of generalised planning and legislative initiatives undertaken at the central level.

The residential area that is clearly designated, with the exception of Gytheio, dates back to 1923, and is defined as the outline of the houses that existed then. The interventions to enlarge it, as a result of either social needs or political interests, expanded the residential areas to a certain extent and created new situations, from which many landowners benefited and improved their finances. Expansions of residential space, combined with the possibility of building outside residential areas for plots of land larger than four stremmas, came about through successive legislation starting as far back as 1955. These legislations referred to the possibility of building on small lots with frontage on provincial and municipal (formerly community) roads. A significant boost to construction activity was also allowed by the possibility of building on plots, self-contained before 1985, that were located in the zone of 800 meters from the center of the settlements that were more than two kilometers from the sea and had been classified as population stagnant.

These legislative regulations, which are positive for the finances of many families in Mani, have been inadequately applied by many beneficiaries and government bodies. Tritsis’ legislation for small urban planning initiatives with the provision of roads and squares in the zone of 800 meters of stagnant settlements, was silenced by his successors in the Ministry of Urban Planning and by the Prefects who were deciding to which settlements this legislation was applicable. Land concessions to common use before the issuance of building permits for off-plan incomplete plots, although they were drawn up with notary deeds and were registered in the land registry offices, remained in most cases on paper, due to the inertia of local government representatives to implement them. Something similar happened with the municipal roads, for which there are not even clear procedures for their final determination in each municipality.

In view of the intense tourist development in the country, and particularly of Mani, the need arose for changes in the definition of the urban area of each district, starting from the existing urban situation. The funding from the Development and Stability Fund for the preparation of Local Special and Urban Plans, settlement delimitation studies, municipal road designation, and their subsequent publication, are, in principle, an important contribution to the designation of the residential area. However, it has not become clear how long the whole procedure will take nor have the elements that will be taken into account in order to draw up the urban plan for each settlement been defined. Usually, because it is in the interests of the designers to prolong the completion time of the work and consequently their fees, the contractual time is extended significantly. However, this delay is in direct conflict with the interests of landowners in the study areas, since they are thus deprived of the exercise of their rights over their properties.

Several problems regarding the issuance of building permits have recently appeared in many areas of Mani, especially in those for which there is a significant demand for tourist development through proposals for inclusion in investment laws. There may be a basis for the state’s hesitancy to introduce transitional legislative arrangements, for fear of creating a new generation of residential distortions, but it loses its justification when the supervising ministers cannot ensure the timely completion and implementation of the Local Urban Plans under preparation. An additional and particularly important factor is to ensure transparency in all phases of the development of this urban planning process. It is necessary that the elected local authorities have full knowledge of the framework in which the urban plans of their area will be drawn up. This knowledge, together with the possibility for improvement and the relating of the opinion of their citizens with legitimate claims to the appropriate authorities should be the first obligations of the local politicians. This is because Urban Plans do not only concern the current residents, but mainly the generations to come…

THE EDITORIAL BOARD