Critical reviewVariegated capitalism, the Greek crisis and SYRIZA's counter-neoliberalisation challenge

The objective of this critical review is twofold. Firstly, we intend to tackle a number of assumptions that view the Greek crisis as the result of a marked resistance to (neoliberal) structural reforms and the failure to engage constructively with the challenges of globalisation. Instead, we argue that Greece was set on a neoliberal trajectory much before the crisis erupted, and that it is precisely this sustained neoliberalisation process - rather than its absence - that lays behind much of Greece's current troubles. Secondly, we attempt an assessment of the prospect that SYRIZA's victory may be signalling the start of a counter-neoliberal mobilisation. Drawing on the work of Brenner and others, we identify four alternative scenarios - capitulation, divorce, compromise, transformation - and discuss their implications for Greece and the Eurozone.