Politics in modern Greece and the United States influence
1974 was an important year for Greek politics. It was as a year that would change Greece and its politics forever. The year of 1974 may not matter for most countries but for Greece, this was the year the decision was made to switch to democracy.
Before this transition was decided, Greece was not doing well economically. After being attacked many times and loosing soldiers in WW 2, Despite Greece in ruins, they began their own war. Their were many events leading up to this but the first major event was Prime Minister Metaxas's death in 1941. Because of this sudden death, the communist party, for the first time since Mataxas’s ban on communism, the communist took control of the parlament. This meant a communist prime minnister was in power. This is where the trouble starts. Because Greece was so focused on their millitary to win the war, The main focus of everyone was to do their part to win the war against the Axis powers. The communists create an army. The democratic party of course did not want to get left out in credit of help to win the war. And soon they had their army called the Democratic army.
Soon after the war was won, Greece had a tense year of peace where The democratic party took over the parliament after reelection. Greece’s new elected politicians insisted that their elections were “fair”. Even today it unknown if they were fair or not but evidence points that they were not fair. And so with the democratic party in power, “elected” democratic politicians tried to stamp out communism with labor camps.
Outraged by this , war broke out against the democrats. Meanwhile in the USA all aid had been termimated to the USSR starting the Cold War. President Truman a...
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... feared a civil war. The government was losing control at a faster and faster rate and soon, they gave people what they wanted- Freedom and Democracy.
And so, the question you may ask is, “was greece succesfull?” “did all their previous problems go away?” The awnser, sadly is no. Greece is nearly as bad as it was when they transitioned to democracy. The Greeks have 20% of their people unemployed and roumers have started going around this year a new civil war is about to break out. Still, today the question is “will greeks ever be as prosperous as their ancient ancestors?” Only fate can tell us.
Bibleorgraphy www.Marxists.org/archives/40s-50s 2011 Marxists internet archive www.trumanlibray.org/archives 1955 Truman library
Works Cited
www.Marxists.org/archives/40s-50s 2011 Marxists internet archive www.trumanlibray.org/archives 1955 Truman library
Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union had started since the early conference in World War Two and increased further at the War’s conclusion. These tensions developed further during the Berlin Blockade and Airlift during 1948 and 1949, China becoming communist in 1949, and the Korean War between 1950 and 1953. The events, have been labelled as the early crisis of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and greatly increased tensions between the two superpowers and further led the countries into a Cold War.
Ancient Greece today is most known for the culture: the gods, the dramas, how people lived. What most people do not realize is that there were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of different civilizations spread throughout Greece that all had different forms of government. The three main ones were Athens, Sparta, and Miletus. Each was very different from the other. The most powerful out of all three was Sparta: a military based society. The Spartan government had a strong foundation that was all torn down by one bad leader.
The Corcyran democrats responded in envy and greed and hate when they had finally won out over those who had oppressed them for so long. They simply allowed their animal passions to rule their minds. Much like the Bacchae in the famous tragedy they released reason to follow their base emotions. They struck back without thinking, beyond reason. Just as Thucydides tells us they forgot the laws of humanity that exist “to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress, instead of leaving those laws in existence, remembering that there may come a time when they, too, will be in danger and will need their protection (III.84).” Sadly this soon became a common state of affairs throughout the whole of Greece. Perhaps the war would have ended sooner and with much less loss of life if only we as men were not so weak.
“Was Truman Responsible for the Cold War”, well, according to author Arnold A. Offner, his simplistic answer is an obvious “yes.” “Taking Sides” is a controversial aspect of the author’s interpretation for justifying his position and perception of “Truman’s” actions. This political approach is situated around the “Cold War” era in which the author scrutinizes, delineates, and ridicules his opponents by claiming “I have an ace in the hole and one showing” (SoRelle 313). Both authors provide the readers with intuitive perceptions for their argumentative approaches in justifying whether or not “Truman” contributed to the onset of the “Cold War.” Thus far, it would be hard-pressed to blame one single individual, President or not, for the “Cold War” initiation/s. Information presented shows the implications centered on the issues leading up to the Cold War”, presents different ideologies of two Presidents involving policy making, and a national relationship strained by uncooperative governments.
It is surprising indeed that Even today, tyrannies and dictatorships exist in the world when more than two and a half thousand years ago the ancient Athenians had developed a functional and direct form of democracy. What contributed to this remarkable achievement and how it changed the socio-political. scene in Athens is what will be considered in this paper. The paper will have three sections, each detailing the various stages. of political development from the kings of Attica to the time of Pericles when, in its golden age, Athens was at the height of its. imperial power.
The Soviet Union began to view the United States as a threat to communism, and the United States began to view the Soviet Union as a threat to democracy. On March 12, 1947, Truman gave a speech in which he argued that the United States should support nations trying to resist Soviet imperialism. Truman and his advisors created a foreign policy that consisted of giving reconstruction aid to Europe, and preventing Russian expansionism. These foreign policy decisions, as well as his involvement in the usage of the atomic bomb, raise the question of whether or not the Cold War can be blamed on Truman. Supporting the view that Truman was responsible for the Cold War, Arnold Offner argues that Truman’s parochialism and nationalism caused him to make contrary foreign policy decisions without regard to other nations, which caused the intense standoff between the Soviet Union and America that became the Cold War (Offner 291)....
fear. Americans did not want to go back to a controlling government that they had just escaped by coming to America.
Athens took over leadership of Greece in 487BC with the Delian League.With Sparta caught up in internal problems in the Peloponnese, and the war with the helots further stretching them, Athenian democracy was continuing to move up.
soldiers, Greece was showing its ultimate power. Not only was it necessary to take war prisoners
Quickly fear began to collect within the public, and it wasn’t before long that the fear translated into support for the new policies of foreign involvement. Truman mentioned in his speech that this investment of U.S. resources paled in comparison to the cost of World War II. Truman insisted it is a necessity to secure the investment in peace achieved through the war by the means of curbing the communist agenda via foreign involvement and aid. This effort was portrayed as a way to prevent further wars, but instead directly contributed to the start of the cold war. Truman’s final lines in his speech stretch from instilling a fear of the communist regime exclaiming “The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died” and portraying the United States as a savior to nations under the scope of the Soviet Union as “The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms. If we falter in our leadership, we may endanger the peace of the world -- and we shall surely endanger the welfare of our own nation” (Truman). This quote accurately sums up the scope of foreign involvement and relations of the United States during this time period. Truman quickly made the point to
Throughout the Ancient Greek world, there have been many wars and standoffs. However, there has been only one which changed the course of Greek history forever; the Peloponnesian War. Caused by the growing tension between Athens and Sparta, it came and left, leaving only destruction in its wake. The defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War caused the downfall of Greece, and the end of the Classical Age.
Between the years of 508 BCE and 322 CE, Greece flourished under democracy. However, some question if the flourishing of Athens is due to the democracy that was in place as opposed to other factors relevant in building a successful community. This investigation will examine the effectiveness of Athenian democracy in Greek society. Relevance of Athenian democracy can be seen in foundation of many democracies found worldwide. In this investigation the right to vote, protection of minorities, use of social class, the structure of democracy and how Greek democracy has influenced the world will be addressed. The place investigated will be Greece, specifically the capitol Athens. The effectiveness of Athenian democracy can be seen in social structure, protection of minorities, and right to vote, as well as its structure and influence of other countries around the world.
In his chapter on Greece, Colin Chant writes: "The system of cities was also shaped by fundamental political changes" (p. 57). This statement leads into a discussion of the rise of democracy in Greek city-states. An elected assembly wielded the authority in these city-states. Chant states, "Although the development of participatory modes of government might well be seen as a product of enlightened Greek culture, the influence of the Aegean environment must also be considered" (p.57). This assertion deserves some attention, as it insinuates that macro-level forces could be more responsible for governmental evolution than micro-level changes. The statement also walks the fine line concerning the innate political nature of individuals.
However Athenian democracy formed the basic structure of many western societies today and has influenced them significantly. A continuity when comparing modern society’s and Ancient Greeks form of democracy is that the Ancient Greeks had a judicial system much like today people were chosen to sit on juries (What did democracy really mean?, 2015).However there wasn’t a cross examination and imprisonment was not used as a punishment, instead if someone was found guilty they either had to pay a fine or was put to death (ABC, 2003). A major difference is between Athenian democracy and modern day democracy is eligibility in Ancient Greece as only male adults were allowed to vote and had to adhere to strict birth criteria (Cartledge, 2011) this meant only 10-20% of the overall population were allowed to vote (What did democracy really mean?, 2015). Today the voting age varies however there is no discrimination between sexes in modern democratic governments. Another key difference is that Ancient Greece was a direct democracy whereas modern society is a representative democracy. This means that in Athens the whole citizen body would go to assembly and vote on every decision. Today we vote people to represent everyone and to make decisions on behalf of the whole body of
Ancient Greek systems of government took many forms monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. Because the Greek city-states were self-governing entities and not bound together by any type of central control or an empire, as in other ancient civilizations, various different governing formats developed independently and allowed for experimentation and change. However it must be mentioned that Greece is the mother of the democratic government being used today by so many