The economy of Greece has recently seen forced change from economic instability arising from a lack of economic growth, high unemployment, and bad sovereign debt. The articles reviewed for this paper discuss the argument between government spending cuts vs. government spending recent economic collapse has brought about the political economic conditions of radicalism, and long-term unemployment.

The first article covers the described radical right-wing socialist Golden Dawn party (Economist, Greek Politics, 2013), a disparate motley crew that concede to the belief of a pro-national political government that supports an economy by and for the Greek people. The party is anti-immigrant and seeks to limit participation of the immigrant population and create an environment hostile to the facilitation of immigration. The long-term unemployment article (Economist, Long-term unemployment, 2013) indicates Greece long-term unemployment relative to the OEC nations and some member European nations is excessive. The Greek unemployment in 2007, which is before the rise of the Golden Dawn party, was at about 49%, or one out of two Greeks faced unemployment in Q4 of 2007; by 2013, the number rose to approximately 57% (Economist, Long-term unemployment, 2013). Greece ranks third highest among 12 OECD nations.

The rise in long-term unemployment has primarily afflicted the youth, leading to half of the under 25yr old working population rendered unemployed. The Golden Dawn party is primarily a youth led movement that doesn’t believe that “austerity” (Economist, Austerity, 2013) is the most effective approach to relieve the economic malaise of Greece. Austerity refers to a cut in spending, generally long-term entitlement cuts that reduce income cash flow to the pensioners. The spending cuts may or may not follow with tax increases. The income and wealth disparity between the youth and the elderly working class and pensioners is considerable. However, the relative wealth of the elderly and the pensioners of Greece are relatively limited when compared to other developed economies such as the United States and Germany.

The Golden Dawn article describes the party as having penetrated influence into the Greece public high schools where, “Teenage supporters have been spreading its racist message despite complaints by the Greek teachers’ union and left-of-center political parties.” (Economist, Greek Politics, 2013) The goal of the Golden Dawn movement is similar to the National Socialist Movement initiated by Adolf Hitler from 1933 through 1939, to the precipice and subsequent official global commencement of World War II.

Though unlikely is the probability of the Golden Dawn movement leading to a world war, there is possibility of internal strife within Greece as factions of youth groups form separatist movements and follow with malevolent behavior at the street level. The police support the Golden Dawn movement and as such, should the national government become occupied by the Golden Dawn, the recipe for a socialist fascism is written. The following quote closes the paper and indicates the growing level of tolerance for the Golden Dawn Party. According to the austerity article, “Golden Dawn’s emergence is shrugged off by many as another unpleasant outcome of the economic crisis rather than a potential threat to democracy.” (Economist, Greek Politics, 2013)