Athens: Citizenship and Governance

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the democratic system of modern day Greece. The author looks at a number of elements that make up the Greek democratic system and attempts to analyze their effectiveness in providing true democratic representation to the citizens of the country. The elements examined include the following: the electoral system, the civil service and its accessibility to the public, bureaucracy and the effects of Greece's geographical makeup on democratic processes.

From the Paper:

"At the same time however, there was an increased need in the reorganization of the country due to the fact that it would soon join the EU in 1981. In this sense, a second layer of organization was built, the prefectures (Chlepas, 1994). This is considered to be one of the first steps towards achieving a higher degree of autonomy and local decentralization. The need for such a process was rather big, considering the fact that the regions of Greece are rather far apart and the administrative territory of the capital for instance takes into account also some remote additional territories which do not have an easy access to the administrative facilities available to for the ones in the capital."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Braunstein, Florence, and Pepin, Jean Francois. Les Grandes Doctrines. Paris: Ellipses, 1998.
• Chlepas, N.K.. Administration of multiple levels. Theoretical debates and institutional reforms. Athens, Komotini: Sakkoulas, 1994.
• Dunleavy, Patrick, and Brendan O'Leary. Theories of the state. the Politics of Liberal Democracy. London and New York: Macmillan and Meredith, 1987.
• E- Government Observatory. Factsheet: e Government in Greece. 2005. 29 Jan. 2008 http://europa.eu.int/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=21011
• European Federation of Public Service Unions. Greece - civil servants to strike on 21 October, protesting 2005 budget. 2005. 29 Jan. 2008 http://www.epsu.org/a/767

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