European Integration in the Age of Narcissism: An Approach of the Greek Economic Crisis

European Union's (EU) enlargement has two principal impacts towards the new Member-states (M-S) socioeconomic system: economic and social (including cultural) integration.Economic integration is based upon an economic arrangement between different regions, regarding the elimination of trade barriers and the coordination of monetary and fiscal policies. However, the participation of Greece in the Economic and Monetary Union and the adoption of the Euro (€) as national currency, restricted country's international competitiveness. Despite the income increase, which rose from € 5,500 (1991) to € 17,745 (2008 before the economic crisis) thanks to the Greek accession to the EEC in 1981, the production system could not take advantage of the new conditions, due to its inability to resolve its vast structural and systemic weaknesses. The Greek society had a strictly short term view depending on the exploitation of the EU capital inflows, and the economic growth did not contribute either to growth in productivity or competitiveness for the country.Apart from economic integration, Greece also experienced intensely a social integration, which led to the differentiation in attitude for a large majority of Greeks. The rise of standards of living as well as the trend towards modernization, which characterize the Greek European integration, instead of reflecting a convergence, it is mostly characterized by a cultural imperialism, which is based on the idea of the poor countries of the European periphery imitating the rich of the center. However, the imitation of the western European consumption patterns could not be self-supported due to the lack of wealth, which led to borrowing and finally to the phenomenon of the over-indebted households. The country was introduced in an era of narcissism, which led to a collateral drawback, the downgrade of its social capital.