During World War II Greece was occupied by Germany. Underground resistance movements developed, many of them supported by the Soviet Union and organized around Communist ideology. Thus for many Greeks, resisting the Germans became equated with being a Communist.
As one of the first moves of the Cold War, at the end of World War II, Harry Truman put U.S. resources into Greece to support the non-Communist political parties. With Truman's help the non-Communists won. If the people of Greece had gotten the post-war government they truly wanted, it might have been a Communist government.
Anti-Communists won the struggle, without having a clear majority. For this reason they may have needed to adopt some of the programs a Communist government would have instituted in order to become acceptable to the majority of Greeks.
Communist-style programs explain the bureaucracy and inefficiency noted above. Corruption is endemic in all cultures around the Mediterranean basin; it is not unique to Greece.
