So when a country changes government we should just cancel their debts? The Nazis were democratically elected by the German people. Isn't it what democracy is about? Giving power and responsibility to the people.
Greece accumulated their debt by implementing shitty socialist policies, Germany by killing over 70 million people.
Also, it's not as much the "shitty socialist policies" (whatever that means, since Greece was until fairly recently, ruled by a conservative party) but the fact that taxation has long been a problem there, leaving the coffers empty and abandoning a huge chunk of the economy to hand-to-hand payments, tax dodgers and overall fraudsters.
Heh, that's putting it lightly. They attacked everyone.
"[Hitler] was appointed chancellor on 30 January 1933."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_July_...
"They saw great gains by the Nazi Party, which for the first time became the largest party in parliament, though without winning a majority."
That's what democracy is about, the dictatorship of the biggest minority.
The constitution of the Weimar republic was crappy, but that's just how it was.
How did they cheat their way to power?
That's a notable failure mode of attempts to implement democratic ideals, but its definitely not what democracy is all about.
If they were taken over by the Troika who would do as they pleased, I imagine that would likely precipitate debt writeoff. The problem is that the Greeks want to keep things as they were / be forgiven the debt. That's mutually exclusive.
I don't think that's true, if you remember that they just elected a very different party into government.
Low productivity Entitlement system Patronage system etc
These may be nice things to have but they simply don't have the money to pay for them. The austerity they've felt has probably gone 1/3 of the way of what is needed (random guess - maybe more or less). And then they elected this new government because it was too painful.
I fully sympathize with their plight - it's similar to a nation going on unemployment after having a nice middle-class job. But there is simply no moral case that other EU members should be sponsoring their former lifestyle.
Entitlement reform is an entirely separate thing.
And given that Syriza has, in fact, slashed pensions and raised the retirement age, they are clearly willing to do that. Since they are a new party dedicated to breaking with the past governance, they are also willing to embrace change. And since they won the election, this means the population gave them a mandate to do exactly that.
The old party, which was responsible for many of the entitlements in the first place, sure as heck wasn't willing to change Greece. Complaining about the new party seems strangely misplaced.
The Weimar Republic was very weak democratically and there were regular street battles between Nazis and Communists. The Nazi party got elected into parliament, but didn't have a majority. Still, Hitler was able to convince president Hindenburg to name him chancellor. After the Reichstag fire, most civil rights were suspended, effectively ending democracy. Most of Hitler's political opponents were arrested or removed from the Reichstag. Even so the Nazi party did not achieve a majority in the next elections. He then essentially intimidated parliament to grant him dictatorial powers in the Enabling Act.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party#Rise_to_power:_1925... [2] https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...
If you were in a cynical and slightly paranoid frame of mind, it could even look like an economic attack on the Euro by US financial institutions.