Now, most of the people around the globe are informed about the situation in Athens and other Greek cities during the last days. This turbulence begun on Saturday 6th of December, when a policeman in patrol in the center of Athens pulled his gun and shot a 16-year-boy. This unacceptable incident was the causation for what followed the last three days. Since then many stories of police brutality came in the fore, but there are some more reasons (obvious and not so obvious) that resulted this rage and anger on the Greek streets, such as:
- The continual political and economic scandals and the impunity of those who are guilty.
- The lack of meritocracy and the politicians’ short term view (No long term plan and initiatives and no vision for issues dealing with the environment, security, energy, health system and education)
- The economic crisis that puts additional pressure on the people.
- Low focus and investment in education, in this context many students and young researchers are moving abroad, looking for a fertile academic environment.
- Low job opportunities and the misbelief to young people, in this context many young Greek people are moving abroad for a temporary or permanent occupation.
- The current status of the greek democracy in general.
According to wikipedia the word democracy is derived from the Greek δημοκρατία ”popular government”. In political theory, democracy describes a small number of related forms of government and also a political philosophy. Even though there is no universally accepted definition of ‘democracy’, there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes. The first principle is that all members of the society have equal access to power and the second that all members enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties.
Let’s consider the first principle “that all members of the society have equal access to power” with a simple Greek example:
From 1990 to 2008, two political parties are leading in the Greek parliament (New Democracy [Nea dhmokratia]: from 1990-1993 and 2004-2008 & the Greek Social Party [Pasok]: from 1993-2004). New Democracy won the elections on March 2004 as a result of the ineffectual past governance of Pasok and a massive will for change. Four years after (today) the favorite party for winning the next elections is Pasok according to gallop polls. Today the prime minister of Greece is Konstantinos Karamanlis (the nephew of Konstantinos Karamanlis, the elder, who was also the prime minister of Greece for the periods: 1956-1958, 1958-1961, 1961-1963, 1974-1980). George Papandreou who is the leader of Pasok and possible next prime minister of Greece, is the son of Andreas Papandreou who was the prime minister of Greece for the periods: 1963, 1964-1965, 1981-1989, 1993-1996.
Listing all the family relationships between Greek politicians would take many pages but the question that comes in fore is ”all members of the society have equal access to power”? Are there any other choices?
The second principle “that all members enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties” would take much more time for analysis. Some points universally admitted are the large economic divergences, classes discriminations and opportunities for access to food, education, security and goods among world citizens.
I will just quote the words of Haile Selassie (address to the U.N., 1963): “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war and until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes. And until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, there is war. And until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained… now everywhere is war.”
Globalization implies that most of the issues mentioned above refer to many countries and nations, apart from Greece. These kind of problems are looking for collective solutions and overlooking at them will lead us to a deadline as a society.
I believe that the most important barrier for overcoming these problems is to realise that we must all be constantly active in political decisions instead of relying on politicians after the elections and adopting a passive position. Democracy implies that people are actively involved within the society, otherwise we move to a political status where a few decide for the rest of the people (oligarchy).
