Modern Luddites

Abstract

This chapter asks why social unrest in Greece was so different from other crisis-ridden countries in Europe. By examining long-term patterns of strike activity, it advances the idea that social unrest is related to how society perceives the state's relative utility. Once the utility of Greece's populist democracy was perceived as low or nearly nonexistent, the majority of society showed a high propensity for mass protest and, in several cases, it behaved like modern-day political Luddites in openly attacking the state, its elected representatives, and its key liberal institutions.