“…Whilst this is no indicator of the extensiveness or quality of welfare provision, it does show that the neoliberal imperative of welfare retrenchment has been insignificant to the Greek case. As a percentage of GDP, total public expenditure in Greece rose from the 1960s onwards, but largely remained below European and OECD averages (see Economou, 2004;Pascual & Alvarez-García, 2006;Paternoster et al, 2008;OECD, 2009b). Despite regular and recently amplified criticisms, the size of Greece's public sector workforce and related expenditure upon wages and public pensions have stayed close to average EU and OECD levels.…”