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The Greek Crisis — Its Constitutional Background

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Extract

Ever since the liberation of Greece over a century ago, the central issues in Greek public life have been the political unification of all Greek-speaking peoples, questions of domestic, social and economic policy, and the elaboration of a satisfactory constitutional regime.

Since Greece received at the time of its liberation only a small share of the lands which it considered to be Greek, its foreign policy has always had this goal: the unification under the political sovereignty of the national state of all the territories in the Eastern Mediterranean region where Greek-speaking inhabitants predominate. By the acquisition of the Ionian Islands in 1863, Thessaly in 1881, and Crete, die Aegean Islands, Southern Epirus and Southern Macedonia in 1913, the greater part of this task had been accomplished on the eve of the first World War.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1948

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References

1 Convenient general histories of Greece are Miller, William, History of the Greek People, 1821–1921 (New York, 1922);Google ScholarMavrogordato, John, Modern Greece, 1800–1931 (London, 1931);Google Scholar and Forster, E. S., A Short History of Modern Greece, 1821–1940 (London, 1941).Google Scholar

2 The best guides to Greek constitutional development are Saripolos, Nikolaus N., Das Staatsrecht des Königreichs Griechenland, “Das öffentliche Recht der Gegenwart, Band VIII” (Tübingen, 1909);Google ScholarCouclélis, Alexandre P., Les régimes gouvernemenlaux de la Grèce, de 1821 à nos jours (Paris, 1921),Google Scholar especially 9–46; Argyropoulo, P. A., “La réforme constitutionelle en Grece,” Revue des Sciences politiques, LIX (0103, 1936), 834;Google Scholar and in particular Kaltchas, Nicholas, Introduction to the Constitutional History of Modern Greece (New York, 1940).Google Scholar The question of French influence is discussed in Svolos, A. J., “L'influences des idées de la Révolution française sur les Constitutions helléniques de la Guerre d'indépendence,” Révolution française. New Series. IV, 4 (1935), 340–55;Google ScholarMirkine-Guetzévitch, B., “L'influence de la Révolution française sur le développement du droit international dans l'Europe orientale,” Recueil des Cours. Académie de Droit international, XXII, 2 (1928), 299457;Google ScholarAufricht, Hans, “Adamantios Korais and the image of the modern Greek state,” New Europe, II, 10 (09, 1942). 295–9.Google Scholar

3 See especially von Osten, A. F. Prokesch, Geschichte des Abfalls der Griechen vom Türkischen Reichs (6 Vols.; Vienna, 1867);Google ScholarPhillips, W. A., The War of Greek Independence, 1821 to 1833 (New York, 1897);Google ScholarCrawley, C. W., The Question of Greek Independence: A Study of British Policy in the Near East, 1821–1833 (Cambridge, Eng., 1930);Google Scholar and Engel-Janosi, Friedrich, “Austria and the Beginnings of the Kingdom of Greece,” Journal of Central European Affairs, I (19411942), 2844, 208–23.Google Scholar

4 Kaltchas, , op. cit., 138.Google Scholar

5 Saripolis, , op. cit., 1012, 175–86;Google ScholarKaltchas, , op. cit., 111–47;Google ScholarChristmas, Walter, King George of Greece (New York, 1914), 61302;Google ScholarBikélas, D., “Vingt-cinq années de règne constitutionnel en Grèce, La nouvelle Revue, LVII, 3 (04 1, 1889), 492519;Google ScholarChantiotis, C. L., Le Conseil d'Etat en Grèce, de 1830 à 1930 (Paris, 1930);Google ScholarMoreau, F. and Delpech, J., Les Règlements des Assemblées législatives (2 Vols.; Paris, 19061907), II, 265–99;Google ScholarWright, H. F., The Constitutions of the States at War, 1914–1918 (Washington, D. C., 1919), 261–78.Google Scholar

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7 Accounts of this period will be found in Mavrogordato, , op. cit., 84147;Google ScholarForster, , op. cit., 73134;Google ScholarStrupp, , op. cit., lv–lxiv, 216–49;Google ScholarFrangulis, , op. cit., I, 109592,Google Scholar and Vol. II; Driault, E. and Lhéritier, M., Histoire diplomatique de la Grèce de 1821 à nos jours (5 Vols.; Paris, 19251926), Vol. V;Google Scholarvon Thadden, E. Schramm, Griechenland und die Crossen Mächle, 1913–1923 (Göttingen, 1933);Google ScholarCosmetatos, P. P., The Tragedy of Greece (London, 1928);Google ScholarGibbons, H. A., Venizelos (2 ed.; Boston, 1923), 191329;Google ScholarPallis, A. A., Greece's Anatolian Venture—and After (London, 1937);Google Scholar and Ion, Theodore, The Hellenic Crisis from the Point of View of Constitutional and International Law (London, 1923).Google Scholar

8 See especially Gmelin, Hans, “Die Verfassung der griechischen Republik,” Jahrbuch des öffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart, XVI (1928), 270–94;Google ScholarMiller, William, “The Completion of the Greek republic,” Contemporary Review, CXXXVI, 763 (07, 1929), 40–6;Google ScholarDareste, F. R., ed., Les Constitutions modernes (6 Vols., 4th ed.; Paris, 19281934), I, 621–56;Google ScholarMirkine-Guetzévitch, B., Les nouvelles Tendances da Droit constitutionnel (Paris, 1931),Google Scholar makes reference to certain aspects of bicameralism, 25–8, and popular sovereignty, 116–65, as regards the Constitution of 1927; see also Djiras, Alexandre C., L'Organisation politique de la Grèce d'après la Constitution republicaine du 29 septembre 1925 (Paris, 1927);Google Scholar and Dimakopoulos, Evangelos, Die griechische Verfassung von 1927 und ihre Wandlungen (Würzburg, 1935).Google Scholar

9 For the social and economic background of the republican era, see Andréadès, André, Les Effets économiquu et sociaux de la Guerre en Grèce (Paris, 1928);Google ScholarMavrogordato, , op. cit., 148212;Google ScholarRoyal Institute of International Affairs, South-Eastern Europe: A Political and Economic Survey (London, 1939);Google Scholar and Moore, Wilbert E., Economic Demography of Eastern and Southern Europe (Geneva, 1945).Google Scholar

10 Kaltchas, , op. cit., 152.Google Scholar

11 South-Eastem Europe, 94–8;Google ScholarForster, , op. cit., 181203;Google ScholarMirkine-Guetzévitch, B., “The Constitutional Question in Greece,” Political Quarterly, VI, 3 (0709, 1935), 411–16;Google ScholarMiller, William, “A New Era in Greece,Foreign Affairs, XIV, 4 (07, 1936), 654–61;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and SirWaterlow, Sidney, “The Decline and Fall of Greek Democracy, 1933–1936,” Political Quarterly, XVIII, 2 (0406, 1947), 95106; XVIII, 3 (0709, 1947), 205–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Official Gazette of the Government of the Kingdom of Greece, I, No. 172 (London, 10 28, 1941).Google Scholar

13 New York Times, February 8, 1942, p. 31;Google Scholar this was followed on January 21, 1943, by the promise of a free general election upon the liberation of Greece, United Nations Review, III, 2 (02 15, 1943), 65;Google Scholar on the legal status of the government-inexile, see Oppenheimer, F. E., “Governments and Authorities in Exile,” American Journal of International Law, XXXVI, 4 (10, 1942), 268–95.Google Scholar

14 In a similar spirit was a project for a revised republican constitution the terms of which were summarized by Michalopoulos, André, Minister of Information, in his speech of April 2, 1944.Google ScholarNew York Times, April 3, 1944, p. 6.Google Scholar and The Philhellene, III, 5–6 (0506, 1944). 3, 8Google Scholar

15 Stavrianos, L. S.Greece: The War and Aftermath,” Foreign Policy Reports, XXI, 12 (09 1, 1945), 174–87;Google ScholarAthenian, , The Case for Greece (London, 1946);Google ScholarNoel-Baker, Francis, Greece: The Whole Story (London, 1946);Google ScholarCapell, Richard, Simiomata, A Greek Note Book, 1944–1945 (London, 1946);Google ScholarMcNeill, W. H., The Greek Dilemma: War and Aftermath (Philadelphia, 1947), 13190.Google Scholar

16 McNeill, , op. cit., 191281;Google Scholar the changing position of King George II may be followed in his statements of March 25, July 4 and December 11, 1943, as reported in the New York Times; Hadsel, Winifred N., “American Policy Toward Greece,” Foreign Policy Reports, XXIII, 12 (09 1, 1947), 146–57;Google ScholarReport of the Allied Mission to Observe the Greek Elections, “Department of State Publication 2522” (Washington, D. C., 1946);Google Scholar the results of the plebescite were reported in the New York Times, Sept. 2, 1946, p. 1, and Sept. 3, p. 4;Google Scholar the point of view of the EAM coalition is well summarized in the pamphlet entitled Une Solution an Problème grec (Paris, 1947), which is a digest of the material presented by that organization to the Security Council Commission of Investigation.Google Scholar