Sunday Morning Quotation – Political Scientists Bueno de Mesquita and Smith on Greece et al?

Not literally, but one wonders if this (from their book The Dictator’s Handbook) is the best explanation for the problem and thus relevant to what justice demands in terms of a solution:

While most of us think of a state’s bankruptcy as a financial crisis, looking through the prism of political survival makes evident that it really amounts to a political crisis.  When debt exceeds the ability to pay, the problem for a leader is not so much that good public works must be cut back, but rather that the incumbent doesn’t have the resources necessary to purchase political loyalty from key backers.  Bad economic times in a democracy mean too little money to fund pork-barrel projects that buy political popularity.  For kleptocrats it means passing up vast sums of money, and maybe even watching secret bank accounts dwindle along with the loyalty of their underpaid henchmen.