In Monday's diary, I asked, considering that Tibetan peoplehood, culture, and society are inextricably bound up with Lamaism, and that the Charter of the Tibetans in Exile, a constitution guaranteeing the usual democratic rights, also recognizes special roles for the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism, Can there be a Tibetan democratic state?
Over 60% of those polled answered, yes it can.
Today, I want to focus attention on Greece, which became a state in 1821 after gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire. Its constitution and laws give special recognition to the Orthodox Church and specially privilege ethnic Greek non-citizens in becoming Greek citizens. So, today's question is
Is Greece a democratic state?
One might think that the answer is obviously yes. After all Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981. Greece also is a member of the Council of Europe, which sponsors the European Court of Human Rights.
But can a state be democratic when it is not religiously neutral and privileges a particular ethnic group regarding becoming citizens?
Before answering the question -- Is Greece a democratic state? -- let's learn a bit about the country in relation to these two issues: religion and citizenship.
Religion and the Greek constitution
The Constitution of Greece, adopted in 1975 after the fall of the military junta, and since amended several times, gives official status to the Greek Orthodox Church. Although the Greek constitution guarantees Greek citizens freedom of conscience and equal rights, the constitution is not at all religiously neutral.
The Preamble to the Greek constitution invokes
the name of the Holy and Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity
The President of the Republic, "prior to his taking office," must swear an oath (Art. 33):
in the name of the Holy and Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity
Article 3, devoted to Relations of Church and State specially recognizes and privileges the Eastern Orthodox Orthodox Church. Through that church, the constitution also links itself with a foreign city under its (former) Greek name, Constantinople:
- The prevailing religion in Greece is that of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. The Orthodox Church of Greece, acknowledging our Lord Jesus Christ as its head, is inseparably united in doctrine with the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople and with every other Church of Christ of the same doctrine, observing unwaveringly, as they do, the holy apostolic and synodal canons and sacred traditions. It is autocephalous and is administered by the Holy Synod of serving Bishops and the Permanent Holy Synod . . .
Indeed, the Greek constitution also bans proselytizing at the same time that it proclaims that "freedom of religious conscience is inviolable." (Art. 13). The same article also requires that "[t]he text of the Holy Scripture shall be maintained unaltered," and prohibits "[o]fficial translation of the text into any other form of language, without prior sanction by the Autocephalous Church of Greece and the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople," which is headed by a citizen of a foreign country, namely, Turkey.
When it comes to Education, in Article 16, the Greek constitution again privileges religion, linking it to national consciousness:
- Education constitutes a basic mission for the State and shall aim at the moral, intellectual, professional and physical training of Greeks, the development of national and religious consciousness and at their formation as free and responsible citizens.
The Greek constitution even puts part of the country -- Mount Athos (the Athos peninsula) -- under religious administration, namely "representatives of the Holy Monasteries constituting the Holy Community." (Art. 105). The constitution prohibits anyone who is not a good Orthodox Christian from living there:
Heterodox or schismatic persons shall be prohibited from dwelling thereon.
And, again, a foreign citizen residing in a foreign country is given "supreme supervision" for "[f]aithful observance":
Faithful observance of the regimes of the Aghion Oros entities shall in the spiritual field be under the supreme supervision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate" (that is, the Patriarch of Constantinople, in Turkey).
Special status for the Greek diaspora
The Greek constitution also enshrines a special relationship between the Greek state and emigrants from Greece and their descendants. Article 108 provides:
The State must take care for emigrant Greeks and for the maintenance of their ties with the Fatherland.
Indeed, Greece maintains a General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad:
It is the Greek government body responsible for the planning, coordination, and implementation of policy regarding Diaspora Hellenes.
Under the Code of Greek Citizenship, diaspora Greeks enjoy special privileges in obtaining Greek citizenship. First, "[f]oreign persons of Greek Origin" who join the military "automatically obtain the Greek citizenship from their admission to the military schools or from their enlistment." (Art. 4.)
Citizenship also is available through naturalization, subject, among other things, to a 10-year residency requirement (5 years for refugees). But foreigners of Greek origin have no residency requirement. (Art. 5). Since the demise of the USSR, some 200,000 ethnic Greeks, with no other connection to modern Greece, have immigrated to Greece and received citizenship under this provision.
The only people with special citizenship privileges who need not be ethnically Greek must at least be members of Orthodox Christian monasteries. The Greek constitutional provision regarding the special regime for the Mount Athos region provvides:
All persons leading a monastic life thereon acquire Greek citizenship without further formalities, upon admission as novices or monks.
Plainly, these arrangements would not pass muster under the United States Constitution. But who among us is so arrogant as to say that democracy only is possible under that document?
AFAIK, every country generally recognized as democratic recognizes Greece as a fellow democracy. So, today's question is
Is Greece a democratic state?