Greece and Latin America

A country suffers through years of austerity, which starts to generate unrest as people are told this is the only way go even though it never delivers on its promises. One result is that leftist parties, sometimes with radical rhetoric, grow in popularity. Polarization increases. People respond to the idea that there is more than one single option for the economic future of their country. Eventually this leads to winning national elections.

Others proclaim dire warnings of the disaster that will befall any government seeking to break out of orthodoxy. They say leftist promises can't be kept. At some point you end up with a game of chicken, as the government pushes forward with policies that other international actors say they will not accept.

Greece, welcome to the Latin America of 10-20 years ago. You should take a look around to see what worked and what didn't.