6 euro - Prominent Greek Economists - Sakis Karagiorgas
Series: Greece - Silver 6 euro coins
Sakis Karagiorgas was an academic and a symbol of
the fight against the military junta. He was Professor
of Public Finance and Rector of Panteion University
of Social and Political Sciences, Secretary-General of
the cabinet’s economic committee under the Enosis
Kentrou (Centre Union) government and research
fellow at the Bank of Greece and the Centre of
Planning and Economic Research (KEPE). He was
brutally tortured by the military junta, despite already
being seriously injured, and was given a life sentence
by the Extraordinary Court Martial of Athens. In
his defence before the court, he did not hesitate to
deconstruct the narrative of the dictatorship and
take a stand for democracy, in line with his firm belief
that intellectuals have a duty to “uphold the moral
and cultural values of the Greek people”. After the
restoration of democracy, he remained actively
involved in politics, becoming a founding member of
Greece’s Socialist Party (PASOK), and continued to
fight for the upgrading of higher education in Greece,
the advancement of economic knowledge and the
modernisation of Panteion University. His unfinished
work Public Finance, focusing on the economic
functions of the state and on fiscal institutions, earned
him international recognition amongst economists.
The Sakis Karagiorgas Foundation was established
within Panteion University in 1989 to build on his
legacy and promote interdisciplinary research on
state-society relations and on economic, in particular
fiscal, policy making.
