Greece’s location and power
Question:
Discuss about the Agricultural and Environmental Information Systems.
Greece is a nation that is located on the Southern part of Europe. The location of the country enables it to dominate the Aegean Sea and provides a southern approach to the Turkish traits (Polyzos, Tsiotas and Niavis 2015). The country is dominated by the Orthodox Church from early days and it was ruled by the Turkish ruler for a certain period of time in history. Some of the oldest civilizations of the world belong to this country (Stearns et al. 2014). The country has many villages and most of them are dependent on farming for their livelihood. The farming is done by manual means and the use of the machinery has not yet been in practice in the villages. Apart from farming, the villagers also do fishing to earn their food. Greece is referred to as one of the least industrialized countries in the world. The market economy follows a free price system and Greece is a part of the European Union (EU) (Nugent 2017).
Greece was reduced in size after the modern independent state of Greece emerged in 1830 after the Treaty of London. There was unrest in the country as many parts were removed from the state and only places such as the islands of Evia, Sporades, Cyclades and few more remained in the territorial area. Kapodistrias was the first Governor of Greece and his style of ruling was dictatorial (Bikos and Papadimitriou 2013). He was killed in 1831 and then the Civil War followed. In 1832, prince Otto was made the king of Greece but his popularity was questionable as he was not Greek in origin and he used to impose heavy taxes on people. A rebellion in the year 1843 made sure that the prince gave into the idea of having a constitution for the country. The help that Otto expanded to the French and the English during the Crimean War brought in further opposition to the prince from the citizens of the country (Badem 2017). After a prolonged period of war with Turkey from 1878, Turkey finally gave back some areas like Arta and Thessaly to Greece.
The economy started to grow in the 19th century after the construction of railroads and proper roadways in the country. Piraeus became one of the important commercial hubs for Greece after the construction of the Corinth channel. The island of Crete was under international rule and it finally united with Greece in the period 1910-1935. The attacks from Turkey kept taking place and Italy also invade Greek for a short period of time. The politics of the country faced many ups and downs and till the Greek socialist party came into rule the situation of the nation remained unstable. Politicians and leaders such as Andreas Papandreous and Eleftherios Venizelos were the most significant in the modern history of Greece. At present, the financial and employment factors of Greece are the reasons that keep hindering the growth of the country. The unemployment rate is about 23 percent in the country as of yet despite some financial growth in the end of 2016 (Amaro 2018).
The official name of Greece is Hellenic Republic and it is based on its constitution that was formulated in the year 1975 (Diakakis 2014). The parliament of Greece is known as Unicameral Vouli and it consists of 300 members. The type of election is direct and it is done with a system of proportional representative. The term that is offered is of four years however the same can be dissolved anytime if the situation calls for it. The age for voting in the country is 18 years. The President is referred to as the head of state in the country though the president has no such executive power under the belt. The President is elected by the parliament and the term of position is five years. The Prime minister has the executive powers and is assigned with a council of ministers that look into the various departments of the governance.
The country’s farming and fishing industries
The country has a parliamentary republic form of government. The system is one of those which are existent in most of the western countries. The government has three sections namely the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. The President is known as the head of the State but it is seen that the Prime minister is actually the post that is responsible for the executive decisions that are taken in the country (Clogg 2013). The Prime minister is the popular choice of the people of the country.
The Prime minister is known as the head of the government and is appointed by the President. The constitution of the land gave many powers to the President but recent amendments took all the powers from the President and gave it to the Prime Minister. The shift of the executive power made sure that President was only left with ceremonial powers and all the decisions related to the nation were taken by the Prime minister and the council of ministers. The role of the president has been reduced to mere symbolic significance in the nation and the constitution supports such a system.
Some of the most important and active political parties of Greece are as follows-
- New Democracy (ND) – The party is known as the prime centre-right party of Greece but it faced a heavy defeat in the year 2009 and after then kept losing popularity as the right wing parties kept reaping gains. Despite a decrease in the popularity it is seen that the party has more number of voters than the others in Greece.
- Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) – PASOK is a centre-left that was formed in the year 1974. It performed best in the year 2009 and currently the party holds more seats in the parliament than any other party in the country. The party projects itself as a socialist party but it is seen that the party has cut down its social spending and hence the critics refer to it being inclined towards austerity.
- Communist party of Greece (KKE) – This party is known as the oldest political party in the country. The party has played a massive role in the history of Greek left. The party adheres to Marxist-Leninist communism. It does not go into coalitions with other parties that are left-winged.
The system of elections that is prevalent in the country came into existence in 2004 and was later amended in 2008. The election of 2007 was the first election that took place according to the new rules and electoral system. The system offers a mixed logic that assures on producing a majoritarian result as the distribution of seats is done in that particular way. Out of the 300 seats in the parliament, 250 seats are proportionally distributed amongst the parties that achieve a 3% countrywide electoral threshold. The remaining 50 seats go to the party that has the maximum share of seats according to the results of the election (Freire et al. 2014). The total number of electoral districts in Greece is 56 and 288 total MPs are chosen through popular voting method.
Solon – Solon is the person who is known to lay the foundation of democracy in Athens. He is regarded as one of the most eminent political figures in the history of Greece. Solon was the person who removed the system of bonded labor and slavery in the country by removing the debts of people who were serving as labors. His name is mentioned on the list of ‘seven wise men’ of Greece for his extensive political and philosophical influence in the state.
- Antonis Samaras – He is the ex-prime minister of the country and has served in major ministries of the state for a prolonged period of time. He was a successful foreign affairs ministers for the New Democracy party but broke away with them for time being and later he rejoined the party and went on to become the Prime minister of Greece.
The politics of the country has a huge influence on how the nation progresses towards its goals in the coming days. The nation is developing and the progress has to be made quicker and the economic and industrial legislations are required to be enhanced for the country to progress at a faster rate. The present prime minister of the country is Alexis Tsipras, he is from the Syriza party and rules as the head of the government (Moschonas 2013). The politics of country is very competitive and it can be estimated that the government in power has to be constantly working towards betterment of the nation or else the citizens can withdraw support and select a different party in the next elections. The people of Greece did not elect any majority in the nation and hence the country has a coalition government in power. It is evident that the people of Greece are well aware of their needs and requirements and it is assured that if those are not met by the government, the people shall opt for an alternative ruling party in the next elections. In the recent past, it was seen that the racial attacks on immigrants were on the rise and the people were concerned about the security of those who came into the country. The government elected had to address this issue and it is seen that the problem has significantly come down.
The country is on the developing stage and the rate of development is rather slow in comparison to other developing countries. The country has huge room for improvement in its foreign investment and the domestic investment. The market needs to open up more so that the businesses can enter into the economy and make sure that required growth is achieved. The economic growth in the quarters of 2016 stands at 0% , whereas the public debt was at an alarming 179% of GDP (Nielsen 2015). The country put forward terms of negotiation to ease pressure from the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but it failed miserably and the investment climate of the country worsened. The application of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) made sure that the government assets were privatized and the tax collection from the businesses and the citizens were enhanced. This was done for the nation to overcome the debt that it has impending in its economic system. The debt has made the country a place not suitable for any kind of investments to be made. Even after such reports, the companies are slowly progressing towards entering the market and developing the economy of the place. The country is full of debts and it is believed that it can only be free once it leaves the EU. The IMF has repeatedly taken efforts to make sure that Greece becomes debt sustainable but such efforts haven’t effectively led to much impact. A Staggering 8 billion euro is the amount of debt Greece is under (Amaro 2018). The payment deadline is next July and if fails to do so then the amount shall keep rising.
Conclusion
The country has enormous potentiality to grow and the people of the place have the urge to make sure that the growth is achieved. The targets of the individuals should be motivated in a way so that the nation’s targets are achieved. The governance of the country has to make sure that there is no unrest in the society and the people enjoy a freedom in living their life. The freedom of expression should be secured for the people so that they can showcase their demands and requirements and make the government aware of their needs and necessities. The state has a variety in the number of races and ethnic values it has within, but it has to be made sure that the culture and ethnic values of all such people should be respected and secured in the nation. The involvement of the country in the European Union has lead to serious losses and debts for the country and hence in the nearby future to come it is advised that the country removes itself from the EU and serves to the global market and compete in the global sphere. The days to come are bright for the country and it is estimated that the nation will see a massive growth in the economy in the upcoming years.
Reference
Amaro, S. (2018). Should Greece stay or should it go? Analysts divided on whether Greece will exit euro. [online] CNBC. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/09/should-greece-stay-or-should-it-go-analysts-divided-on-whether-greece-will-exit-euro.html [Accessed 10 Apr. 2018].
Badem, C., 2017. The Ottoman Crimean War (1853-1856). Brill.
Bikos, G.D. and Papadimitriou, P., 2013. School libraries in Greece Turbulent past, uncertain present, doubtful future. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 73, pp.73-80.
Clogg, R., 2013. A concise history of Greece. Cambridge University Press.
Diakakis, M., 2014. An inventory of flood events in Athens, Greece, during the last 130 years. Seasonality and spatial distribution. Journal of Flood Risk Management, 7(4), pp.332-343.
Freire, A., Lisi, M., Andreadis, I. and Leite Viegas, J.M., 2014. Political representation in bailed-out Southern Europe: Greece and Portugal compared. South European Society and Politics, 19(4), pp.413-433.
Moschonas, G., 2013. A new left in Greece: PASOK’s fall and SYRIZA’s rise. Dissent, 60(4), pp.33-37.
Nielsen, R.W., 2015. Early warning signs of the economic crisis in Greece: A warning for other countries and regions. arXiv preprint arXiv:1511.06992.
Nugent, N., 2017. The government and politics of the European Union. Palgrave.
Polyzos, S., Tsiotas, D. and Niavis, S., 2015. Analyzing the location decisions of agro-industrial investments in Greece. International Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Information Systems (IJAEIS), 6(2), pp.77-100.
Stearns, P.N., Adas, M., Schwartz, S.B. and Gilbert, M.J., 2014. World civilizations: The global experience. Pearson.
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