Democracy around the World 1: Greece
Greece, birthplace of Democracy
Democracy is a Greek word meaning rule of the people, and Athenian democracy is generally considered to be the first system of government which can be categorised as democracy. Supporters of ‘rule by the people’ may therefore be disappointed by the recent turn of events which saw the elected Prime Minister George Papandreou ousted in favour of non-elected bank chief Lucas Papademos.
Disappointed they may be, but surprised they should not be.
Greek democracy has always been a fragile entity in competition with a variety of alternative systems of government. In the age of the ancient city states, for instance, Athenian democracy was counter-balanced and challenged by the militaristic diarchy (like a monarchy, but with two kings) of Sparta. Within Athens, too, there were detractors of democracy. Plato claimed in his The Republic that it would inevitably lead first to the rise of demagogues who would say anything to get into power and, ultimately, tyranny.
Athenian democracy was very unlike our own. Decisions were taken by a full assembly of all eligible citizens, like an AGM or a never-ending series of referenda, while day-to-day running of the state administration was carried out by a randomly selected citizen council, rather than by professional politicians or civil servants. Nevertheless, it has served as an inspirational starting point for those considering putting power in the hands of the people, and although women, slaves, foreigners and under-20's didn't get a vote, this was still the closest we got to universal suffrage for 2,500 years.
Where did the democracy go?
It is therefore particularly sad for democrats that, for most of the time ever since, the Hellenic peninsula has spectacularly failed to sustain a stable democratic regime. In the centuries after the dusk of Athenian predominance, we have a series of empires, brief flickers of republic, foreign-imposed kings, military dictatorships, coups, half-hearted imitation Fascism, Nazi occupation and civil war. If you are interested in details, they are of course all on Wikipedia.
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| Colonels who ran Greece from 1967 - 1974 |
After the overthrow of the most recent military regime, we were finally left with the Greek Republic we know and love, which joined the European Community in 1981, and which is generally considered to be a democracy, because it has elections.
So if Greece is reckoned to have been a democracy for over thirty years, is it not odd that the current Prime Minister was never elected? Cynics might point out that the UK’s current Prime Minister David Cameron was only endorsed by 36% of the electorate in 2010, and that is certainly worth pondering, but it’s nothing compared to the situation in Greece. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is not a professional politician and has never even campaigned for election, let alone won. And there will be those who would see this as cause for celebration, Plato presumably among them. A sleazy, sycophantic, corrupt, populist politician is the last person you would want in charge of your country. Much better someone who actually knows what he is doing.
But I’m afraid that doesn’t wash with me. Installing an Economist King and former governor of the bank of Greece at the helm of the country just betrays an underlying and preëxisting fear of the markets. Prime Minister Papademos is really only a financial administrator. Real power in Greece has not been surrendered by elected politicians to the technocratic Prime Minister. In fact they barely had any power to surrender, as Papandreou’s failed attempt to hold a referendumon austerity measures showed. Greece is utterly at the mercy of unrelenting, callous market forces, and has been for years. If anything, the politicians are delighted to have had this problem taken off their hands. Since none of them is now in power, they can hope that they will not now have to take the blame for the suffering unleashed on the Greek people by the ever crueller cuts.
The good old days…
So those who still believe in the ideal of government by the collective will of the people should be calling for the immediate restoration of full democracy, right? Well, if that means a return to what was in place before the financial crisis, maybe not. Focusing on the appointment of an unelected puppet of the markets can distract us away from the flaws in the previous, supposedly democratic regime.
For instance, as far as I am concerned, the egalitarian principles of democracy are slightly undermined when party leaderships run in the family, and I’m afraid the Greeks put even our own Miliband brothers to shame in this respect. The recently ousted Greek PM, for example, was Socialist Party (PASOK) leader George Papandreou, whose father and grandfather were both Greek Prime Ministers before him! I know politics can sometimes run in the blood, so to speak, but doesn’t this raise the least suspicion of nepotism? Unfortunately, opposition party New Democracy (ND) is in a poor position to make any political capital out of this fact. Their leader, former Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, shares the same name as his uncle, who was Prime Minister several times and also President of Greece. In fact, if your family name is neither Papandreou nor Karamanlis, you might as well forget about being elected Prime Minister. Your best chance would appear to be becoming a banker and hoping to be parachuted in by Merkozy during the next recession.
Direct Democracy Now?
In the light of this, it is understandable that many Greeks have been dissatisfied with their so-called democracy for some time now. Nepotism and corruption are rife, trust in politicians is abysmally low and social unrest has been on the rise since the global financial crisis began.
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| Corruption perception index red = bad |
Riots took place in 2008 and protests against the imposition of ever harsher austerity measures have continued throughout 2010 and 2011, centred on Syntagma Square in Athens. Popular protest movements with names such as Direct Democracy Now! and the Indignant Citizens Movement have sprung up to demand that the will of the people be paid more than mere lip-service, generating suggestions for a new kind of democracy. They tend to be anti-political and call for more local democracy and individual voting rights on all issues through referenda. The internet is seen as a crucial tool in overcoming the logistical problems associated with allowing individuals to vote in parliament on any issue. In fact, apart from the vast scale of it, this real-time democracy sounds startlingly similar to ancient Athenian democracy.
If the restoration of democracy only means giving back to the Greek people the choice between yet another Papandreou and yet another Karamanlis, then maybe it’s just not worth it and they should stick with their Economist King. But if the crisis forces them to find a new way of doing democracy, maybe they will once more take their place as the cradle of a new European civilization.
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| Greek protests 2010 - Photo by Jesse Garcia |
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