What does Greek history teach us about the pursuit of democracy?
One lesson it teaches us is that the freedom to practice democracy can be lost! Another: the lasting power of a great idea. A third: that democracy cannot flourish where people do not choose their own government. Greeks won independence as a nation in the 1820s, for example. But they were delayed in their quest for self-determination by the “great powers” of Europe (Britain, France, Russia), which decided that Greece would have a monarchy, not a republic. (See, e.g., “The Great Powers Intervene,” under “Greece,” in the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000.) 3. How has Greece’s role as a Mediterranean country, a Balkan nation, and a member of the EU affected its policies? Certainly, the first paragraph on the Student Text Page allows an inference that Greece (a Mediterranean nation) has a policy of promoting tourism. By the early 2000s, tourism was contributing about $10 billion annually to Greece’s gross domestic product and adding thousands of jobs to its economy. And economists predic
