Indeed, "why does life dwindle here and lengthen beyond"? Because life is related to development. Therefore, the state also has this role: to take care of development. By extension, it has an obligation to ensure that life lengthens, both here and beyond, for everyone.

The modern Greek state, since its establishment, has been organized in a centralized and interventionist manner, because it was necessarily compelled to deal with wartime and peacetime projects. Over time, it developed an oversized and ineffective public administration, a result of clientelistic relations. The need for rational and planned state action is slow to be understood. And when it is understood and programs for social and economic development begin to be drafted, they not only remain unimplemented but also stay "in the drawer."

The peculiar and extensive interventionism resolves - as it resolves - but also causes problems. It is an ineffective and anachronistic statism. And the question is: does the solution lie in the privatization of public wealth or in the depoliticization of the state and, by extension, in the rational functioning of the public sector?

The state's obligation for development is a challenging affair, both in theory and in practice. But what is development? Certainly, the term "development" encompasses all sectors of society and entails a transition to a higher level, according to the values and hierarchies of each society. It is a dream and a reality. The dream can become reality and reality can be a dream. One exists because the other exists. The state has a duty to ensure that the dream of development becomes a reality. And if the Great Idea of the Nation expired in 1922, the Great Idea of development is a matter for all, but primarily a fundamental obligation of the state.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]