The Disruption of Democracy in The Age of Modernity: Examining the Case of Modern Greece

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to understand the use and abuse of the notion of democracy and its operation as a political system throughout the classical Greek period to modernity. The article will show how the development and understanding of democracy from the modern Western Europe completely differs from its classical conception. The analytical starting point is the assumption that the political system of Western democracy is presented as an indirect representation and creates a gap between policy and society such that the latter lacks its physical role as a mandator of the political system. By extending the above-mentioned syllogism to the modern Greek State in accordance with George Contogeorgis’ assumption that the modern political system is neither democratic nor representative, the article is then able to describe the roots of Greece’s current sociopolitical and economic impasse. Thus by questioning the absence of a coordinated political proposal from its executive branch for dealing with major sociopolitical and economic problems, the article searches for the misapplication of democracy in policy formation and implementation.