An elected government overrode a popular referendum to impose austerity terms

Evidence

On July 5, 2015, 61 percent of voters in Greece passed a referendum to oppose a bailout plan from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union that was proposed to address Greece’s sovereign debt crisis. Eight days later, and in spite of the public referendum, the Greek government signed an agreement anyway, settling on a threeyear bailout loan that limited how the country could spend money on its people: Greece had to impose more pension reductions, increase its consumption taxes, privatize services and industries, and implement a pay cut for the country’s public employees. Two years later, the Greek government privatized the country’s ten main ports and put many of its islands up for sale. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 19

Categorization

• XREF: The Greek referendum override is a crucial modern anchor for the book’s central thesis that austerity is imposed against democratic will - a direct parallel to interwar authoritarian imposition. — connects to: Popular referendum success was overridden by technocratic austerity within two months — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1562; The referendum is a popular veto, not a device for innovating law — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 3565
• QUESTION: Want to trace how the referendum override fits theoretically: is democracy itself treated as an obstacle to austerity, as the author’s class-weapon framing suggests?

Broader Connections

• Popular referendum success was overridden by technocratic austerity within two months #corroborates (1.00) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1562