Page 193 - Beholding Liberty!

The Origins of Greek Constitutionalism
(1797-1827)
Paschalis Kitromilides
Academy member, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Political Sciences and Public Administration, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Establishing constitutionalism as the generally accepted regulatory framework and consoli- dating parliamentarism, relatively early on, as the only legitimate system of government in Greece are seminal achievements of modern Greek political history and have invited a thorough
appraisal by Greek political science. The normative power of constitutionalism and the resilience of parliamentarism in Greek political life could perhaps be linked to and interpreted in terms of the tradition of constitutional theory and practice, forged during the period of ideological prepa- ration for and conduct of the struggle for liberation. The revolutionary system of government advocated by Rhigas Velestinlis – a text in which the liberating vision of the Greek republican radicalism is formulated in constitutional terms – could be considered the starting point of this “prehistory” of Greek constitutionalism.
In terms of political science, the cornerstone of the political system of the “Hellenic Republic” proposed by Rhigas in his revolutionary manifesto is the fact that it linked the liberation of the Balkan peoples from the despotic Ottoman rule to the establishment of a system of government driven by fundamental constitutional laws. Modern Greek political science, therefore, was found- ed squarely on the necessary relationship between liberty and constitutionalism, which became the blueprint for the political theory of the European Enlightenment since the times of Locke and Montesquieu.
PRE-REVOLUTIONARY CONSTITUTIONS
Rhigas’s system of government was an adaptation of the Jacobin constitution of 1793 –the “first year of the French Republic” – to the historical reality of the late-eighteenth-century Balkan society. It advocates the model of a unified state, operating on highly participatory processes and aiming to lay the foundations of a society of equality and democracy through social welfare measures. Despite its emphasis on unity, the Constitution of the Hellenic Republic recognises the multiple ethnocultural identities of its constituent populations. Rhigas respects ethnocul- tural diversity and pluralism of identities and – despite the Jacobin inspiration of his system of government, he by no means seeks to abolish them. He emphasises, however, the supremacy of the common political identity of all the citizens that make up the body politic of the Republic. This “multicultural” aspect of Rhigas’s system of governance is the most original element of his political thought.
The resonance of Rhigas’s ideas with the tradition of Greek republican radicalism established his notion of constitutionalism amongst the basic assumptions of the political thought of modern Greek Enlightenment. This assumption is drawn from what Adamantios Korais, in his Fraternal Teaching (1798) and Memorandum on the Current State of Culture in Greece (1803), and, even more
Rigas Feraios
New Political Administration –
The manuscript of Kythera
Library of the Hellenic Parliament
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