CONSTANTINE KARAMANLIS, perhaps the most successful Greek prime minister of the 20th century, once remarked that "Greece can be almost impossible to govern".
His remark seemed apt over the last few days as his nephew and namesake struggled to impose his authority after nights of street battles, arson and looting across the country.
The centre-right government of prime minister Costas Karamanlis appears to have lost control as unrest triggered by the killing by police of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15-year-old student, continued unabated.
Karamanlis's attempts to build consensus with the opposition have quickly collapsed.
Instead, he has found himself fending off calls for an early election, while the populist opposition has backed street protests.
The violence highlights the unwillingness of successive governments to tackle young people's concerns, from the poor quality of education provided by a deeply politicised university system, to frustration over the lack of job opportunities.
Many young Greeks feel they have been excluded by a political and business establishment that puts family links above qualifications.
"You come back from abroad with a master's degree and have to work for €600 a month in an unrelated field," said Panayotis Adamopoulos, an electronics engineer. "How are you supposed to build a career?"
State-run universities, which have a stranglehold on Greek higher education, are inadequately staffed and funded, according to professors with teaching experience in western Europe.
In spite of high economic growth rates since the mid-1990s, annual spending on higher education is less than €5,000 per student, the lowest in the euro zone, 20 and 25 per cent less than Portugal and Spain respectively.
Unemployment among young graduates is believed to exceed 20 per cent, although overall jobless rates have averaged less than 8 per cent in the past two years.
"Our long-term problems are not the budget deficit but education and, in a broader sense, the rule of law," says Yannis Stournaras, an Oxford-educated economics professor at Athens University.
An attempt by Karamanlis two years ago to modernise higher education was foiled by three months of street protests by students, backed by professors who were reluctant to upgrade teaching standards and face peer reviews.
Karamanlis was also unable to win the cross-party support needed to lift a constitutional ban on police entering university premises, a leftover from a period of left-right political confrontation four decades ago.
Students have enjoyed a privileged status in Greek society because of their role as the instigators of a rebellion in 1973 against Greece's military dictatorship, which led to its collapse the following year.
As a result, politicians have been unwilling to crack down on protesters and extremists who exploit the so-called campus asylum regulation, a ban enshrined in the constitution.
This week self-styled anarchists barricaded inside the Athens Polytechnic have been openly stockpiling fire bombs and other missiles to be used in demonstrations, safe in the knowledge they are beyond the reach of the police.
Authorities have tolerated for years the presence of an anarchist community in Exarcheia, a student district filled with bars and cafes where police are said to turn a blind eye to drug-dealing and even protection rackets.
Periodic clashes between riot police and hooded youths in Exarcheia have in the past been seen as a ritual for letting off steam.
Grigoropoulos was among a group of teenagers who had been taunting police - a regular occurrence at weekends - when he was killed on Saturday night.
"Going down to Exarcheia has been a kind of Saturday night entertainment with an extra edge," said Apostolos Hatziyannis, who used to own a bar in the neighbourhood.
With police under strict instructions this week not to use firearms at demonstrations, the extremists have seized the initiative."The students protest and go home, then the anarchists come out and lay waste to the city centre," said Taki Michas, a commentator for Eleftherotypia, a left-wing Athens daily newspaper. - (Financial Times service)