This paper, informed by the experience of other countries, examines the logic of development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Greece. It argues that the development of SMEs is historically connected to a double process: the accumulation of capital on an expanded scale, and the production and reproduction of the Greek petty bourgeoisie, as a means of consolidating the hegemony of the capitalist class. Thus SMEs, statistically examined in terms of comparative rates of growth, sizes of employment, magnitudes of value added per person, levels of wages and salaries and degrees of labor productivity, are neither exogenous to Greek capitalism nor declining pockets in an otherwise dynamic system. Rather, they are an intrinsic and structured part of the Greek economy.
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