The political conditions for economic reform in Europe’s South

This chapter aims at anchoring the experience of the Euro area south during the crisis to the vast literature on the political conditions that increase the likelihood of reforms being passed. In doing so, it qualitatively benchmarks 11 government experiences in five countries and explores 11 hypotheses originally formulated by Williamson (1994). While far from identifying clear silver bullets, the chapter can be seen as a handbook for future reform-minded politicians.