Talk:Euclid Tsakalotos/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Shudde (talk · contribs) 11:06, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

I will give this a crack. Please be aware that I am not more familiar with economics, Greek politics, or the Eurozone crisis than the average person who reads the newspaper most days. So if some of my questions seem obvious to you, then that may be why!

Comments:

• Some sources also claim that Tsakalotos attended Eton College. -- this could probably be moved to a note.
• did "much to bolster [his] self confidence". quotes should have a reference immediately following them.
• and in later years George Osborne, who went on to become the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, was a member. -- is this really important, could it be removed?
• Tsakalotos was an admirer of both Gerald Cohen and Andrew Glyn -- as a lay person, I don't really understand why this is important or relevant. What do these two people have in common? I suppose the question is, why is this here?
• he also reportedly became a supporter of Irish republicanism -- why reportedly. This seems to qualify the statement. If we are not confident that he became a supporter maybe this should be phrased better (also we need to remember this is a BLP).
• Did he ever take UK citizenship considering he lived there for so long?
• He became a full professor, but since September 2010, he has been a professor of economics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, more commonly referred to simply as the University of Athens. -- when did he become a full professor, and why the "but" (my emphasis added)?
• Vassilis Alevromitis, a former student of his, has recalled that Tsakalotos's classes were often "packed". -- what does this mean exactly (and who is Vassilis Alevromitis)? Were they packed because there were simply a lot of people enrolled in the class, or because there was something attractive about his lectures?
• A detailed list and further treatment of select works can be found in Works, below. -- I would move this to a note, it probably doesn't belong in the article body.
• He has also been involved with trade unions, having served as a member of the executive committee of the Hellenic Federation of University Teachers' Associations (POSDEP). -- was this his only involvement with a trade union?
• Some of Tsakalotos's work has sparked debate in academic circles, leading to some articles being published in response to his work. This includes Educating Capitalists: A Rejoinder to Wright and Tsakalotos by Wolfgang Streeck, as well as Tsakalotos on "Homo Economicus": Some Comments by Guglielmo Carchedi -- more detail should be added here, or at least tell us what the controversy was. Stating the titles of works that disputed some of his work isn't much help to the reader (and could probably be moved to the notes or references anyhow)
• Tsakalotos joined the student wing of the eurocommunist Communist Party of Greece (Interior). -- Is it possible to reword this sentence to avoid the adjacent links (WP:SOB)?
• Tsakalotos was a prominent member of Synaspismos and he was a member of their Central Political Committee and their Political Secretariat, before the party dissolved in 2013 to form Syriza.[16] Tsakalotos is also currently member of the Central Committee of Syriza,[17] having been elected to it in December 2004.[18] Tsakalotos stood as a Syriza candidate for Preveza in the 2004 legislative election.[18] -- this is confusing. It says that he was a member of Synaspismos until it dissolved to form Syriza in 2013, but then says he was involved in Syriza in 2004, at the same time as he was a member of Synaspismos. Could he be a member of both concurrently? It's a little confusing to me as someone not intimately knowledgeable on Greek politics!
• He has been named as one author of the Thessaloniki Programme.[20] -- what is the Thessaloniki Programme? Just very briefly and broadly.
• Tsakalotos was interviewed by Emma Alberici on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's programme Lateline.[22] -- I don't know why this is there
• Some of the material in In opposition is just a list or timeline of events/things he did, but without any real context or explanation. For example what is Crucible of Resistance about? Why is the Intelligence Squared debate important? There doesn't seem to be much secondary source analysis of what he did, thought, achieved in this time. It's hard to articulate, but for a lay-person like me I'm kind of left scratching my head a little, wondering why this matters? Very little is mentioned about the actual situation in Greece during this time, but surely this is important to understanding some of the statements. For example we have Tsakalotos said that Greece needed "fiscal space", meaning in practice several billion Euros to spend on growth-promoting measures. but the Euro-crisis, Greek dept crisis, recession etc hasn't actually been explicitly mentioned to provide some context to these comments.
• "part of a great realignment in European politics" -- what does he mean by this?
• was noted for his differences with Varoufakis -- what are they?
• Reading First term in government I again get the feeling that it's a timeline of events, and lacks context. It however is a little easier to understand than the Opposition section.
• was an emergency meeting of the Eurogroup -- the purpose of the meeting should be stated.
• We have a lot of quotes without clear context. Quotes are fine, but understanding what they mean is very important.
• In the parahraph starting "On 16 July ..." it could be clearer what the tenth austerity package is about and why he supported it, and why that decision will "burden" him
• Reportedly, Tsakalotos was -- Reportedly by who?
• Overall I think that the Political career section could be much clearer to a lay-person such as me. It's not really easy to understand the context under which the various quotes are made, and what they really mean. It's a very very quote heavy section, and I think this weakens it somewhat. Someone unfamiliar with the details of the Greek economic situation over the last five years would really struggle through this section, and they shouldn't be required to go away and read many many other articles to get a broad understanding of what he did during his political career. The prose isn't a problem at all however.
• Tsakalotos has also advocated for a "change in [the] architecture" of the Eurozone. In a May 2012 interview on Lateline, Tsakalotos said: "At the moment the Eurozone is at risk, not because of the Greek radical left - it's at risk because it has an architecture, a financial and economic architecture that is evidently unable to deal with the crisis in the Eurozone, and we think part of the solution is a change in that architecture." At no point here does it say what this "change in architecture" he advocates actually is! All I get from this is he wants to change the structure of the EU.
• Do we need a list of his publications? I don't see this as encyclopaedic, especially as we could just link to the list in the External links section.

First of all, I'm sorry that this article has been waiting since September last year for a review! Overall the prose is fine, and it's referenced adequately. My main problem with with criteria 3a. It seems to be include a timeline of his political career, but I really struggled through the Political career section. Hopefully I expressed why above, but if you are not sure what I mean do ping me and I'll try and explain it another way. I still have to check the images, so will comment on them below. But I'm going to place the article on hold. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. -- Shudde ^talk 11:06, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Images

• File:Euclid Tsakalotos.jpg -- no problems
• File:Euclid Tsakalotos Gerry Adams 2015.jpg -- no problems
• File:Tsak ECOFIN 2016.jpg -- no problems.

Images check out. -- Shudde ^talk 11:09, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

First response

No problem about timing, but thanks for having a good look at it!

I'll try and respond to your comments in bullet points for ease of reading.

• I've moved the Eton comment and the comment about responses to his academic work to the notes.
• Removed the stuff about Osborne and referenced direct quote properly.
• Elaborated on who Glyn and Cohen were and their significance to Tsakalotos.
• Removed 'reportedly' on Irish republicanism. It is from a high quality source so is not in doubt.
• No idea about the citizenship, no source suggests he has UK citizenship despite living there for a significant portion of his life. He would have had Greek citizenship from birth, passed down from his parents, and there are likely some rules on Greek MPs/cabinet members having Greek citizenship, so we can be quite sure of that.
• No source on the full professor thing, so changed the wording to only state what there are sources for.
• Elaborated on the packed comment, should make sense now.
• POSDEP is the only known involvement with a trade union, changed to reflect that.
• Changed it to remove adjacent links.
• Elaborated on Synaspismos/Syriza bit, should make more sense now.
• Changed the whole In Opposition section to provide a greater overview rather than just individual events.
• Differences with Varoufakis were already noted in the quote, to do with his lack of flamboyancy compared to him.
• Have in general tried to provide more context to Tsakalotos' activities in the political career section, while bearing in mind this is not an article on the Greek crisis.
• If there are any more quotes without sufficient context, let me know.
• Change in architecture statement is a running theme in his statements, and I've tried to elaborate on it a bit more. I'll try to find a single source that elaborates on it significantly.
• Removed publications, directed towards link in External links.

Furthermore, I've changed some of the sections to try to aid in navigating the article for the reader, rather than 8 large paragraphs in a row. Let me know if I've missed anything and where to go from here. Andrewdwilliams (talk) 17:34, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

@Andrewdwilliams: Great. It reads a lot better now. I have gone through and removed some duplicate links (along with another couple of small edits). Thanks for so promptly addressing my concerns; I was worried they may have been a little overwhelming but you dealt with them perfectly. I'll pass the article promptly. Congratulations! -- Shudde ^talk 11:07, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

@Shudde: Thank you for handling the review! --Andrewdwilliams (talk) 11:23, 19 March 2017 (UTC)