Greece's economic history reflects the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that have bedevilled the country ever since it bacame indepentent in 1832. The road to development has been full of pitfalls such as coups, one fully fledged civil war, several Balkan wars, two World Wars, one devastating occupation, one global crisis, and two outright bankruptcies.
These have endowed Greeks with a sense of insecurity of varying intesity. This has led to a deep-rooted conservatism in natoinal economic planning and deep-seated protectionism on the part of industry and workers. The result is an inflexibility in the face of changing market demands that has, for many years, prevented liberalisation and reform.