I suppose there are emergencies when government intervention can be positive. Spain, after its Civil War (which should really be referred to as Attempted Communist Takeover), instituted a system that was half-state, half-private, and which didn’t give Spain great growth but at least enabled the population to survive.
Germany got all sorts of benefits after WWII, and even the Russians were beloved of most of the US intellectual elite, but Spain was an outcast because Franco had actually defeated Marxism in his country. Leftist US intellectuals rallied together to punish Spain and for many years Spain was excluded from US generosity. There was genuine hunger and deprivation in Spain, and Franco instituted a number of government policies that would one day come back to bite Spain after the Socialists took over upon his death...although perhaps these policies were necessary at that time.
I am not that familiar with Greece, and I have always wondered at the origins of this hard-core socialism. Also, I wonder if the roots of the problems of these three southern countries (Greece, Spain and Italy) actually go back to WWII and the situation after it.
“I am not that familiar with Greece, and I have always wondered at the origins of this hard-core socialism. Also, I wonder if the roots of the problems of these three southern countries (Greece, Spain and Italy) actually go back to WWII and the situation after it.”
In a nutshell yes. Greece, after WW2 and the expansion of the USSR, was seen by the CIA and Eisenhower administration as the lynchpin separating communism from invading western Europe. The U.S funneled money first to the Military junta and then the socialist government which both managed to retain power for long periods of time by creating a welfare state whose stability everyone relied on for survival.
This is the short and generalized, but 100% true, history.