Rules and institutions

There are moments when the country looks like it is only just governable, when, for example, the prime minister - or any prime minister for that matter - starts looking like a Wild West sheriff trying to break up a brawl in a saloon. This has happened a lot in recent decades, with different prime ministers and protagonists.

Looking at us from the outside causes nothing but despair and comparisons with the most anarchic states. Those who believed that Greece could be reformed are worried that some structural failures and habits are too deeply ingrained in Greek society to be fixed. They were under the misapprehension that this would change when leftist SYRIZA came to power but were disappointed by the former administration's happy symbiosis with certain powerful vested interests, a policy that was even presented as a successful way of managing them.

We are winning some...