I am going to analyze Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, and The Constitution of Greece. This constitution was adopted in 1975. Greece named the period between 1821-1833, when the Greek War of Independence took place, the First Hellenic Republic, and was ruled by an absolute monarchy from 1833 until 1843 when it gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. From 1843 to 1923, the constitutional monarchy existed in Greece. The kingdom continued its existence between 1935 and 1974, in the country where the kingdom was abolished between 1924-1935, the period of The Second Hellenic Republic. And the military dictatorship period known as the Colonel's Junta was experienced between 1967-1974 in the last period of the kingdom.
Which came to power on April 21, 1967, and the country ruled for seven years Colonels' Junta made a coup in Cyprus in July 1974 caused to intervene with Turkey's military operation, and the result is the junta in power in Greece was overturned. After the dictatorship of the junta came to an end, in 1974 the country held free parliamentary elections, followed by a referendum. Overwhelmingly, the people chose democracy, and as a result of the final abolition of the monarchy, the military dictatorship of the Colonel's Junta ended, and the Third Hellenic Republic began. After a democratic form of government resumed, the country's constitution was adopted and implemented by the Fifth Revisionary Parliament of the Hellenes on 11 June 1975.
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It can be said that the formation of this constitution was also affected by the constitutions of the previous democratic periods, as Greece experienced system changes many times in its history. Spyropoulos and Fortsakis (2017) stated that before the referendum, the Constitutions of Colonel Junta of 1968 and 1973 were changed with the constitution created in 1952 without all the provisions regarding the monarchy and that the 1952 and 1927 constitutions were used when the 1975 constitution was created (para.73). The 1927 constitution is the constitution that removed Greece from its constitutional monarchy system and established the 2nd Hellenic Republic. The 1952 Constitution overthrew the then-existing authoritarian regime and established a parliamentary monarchy, based on the principle of separation of powers.
At the beginning of the Greek constitution, it is stated that the government system of the country is a parliamentary republic. In Greece, where the principle of separation of powers is applied, the duties, powers, responsibilities, and relations of the legislature, executive, and judiciary are regulated in the constitution.
Within the political system of the country, legislative powers are shared by the Parliament and the President. The 1927 constitution, which was one of the constitutions that affected the 1975 constitution, while the Greek parliament consists bicameral, was not included in the creation of the new constitution. Today, the parliament consists of a mono camera. The number of members of the parliament cannot be below 200 and above 300 according to the constitution (Art. 51). Today, the members of the Parliament consist of three hundred MPs, elected by the Greek people for four years.
Parliament performs its duties together with three entities. These are the Plenum, the Recess Section, and the permanent parliamentary committees. The Plenum includes all the deputies elected at that time and its main task is the legislature and the control of the parliament (Art. 70). The Recess Section includes one-third of the deputies. Its task is to fulfill some of the Plenum's duties when the parliament is on holiday. There are three consecutive Recess Sections every year during the summer holidays. In this way, the participation of all members of parliament in the Recess Section is ensured. The Recess Section can only discuss and vote on bills or proposals that, according to the Constitution, do not fall under the authority of the General Assembly. Permanent parliamentary committees take part in legislative work and supervision of the parliament. They are formed by the decision of the head of the parliament.
The main task of the parliament is legislation. In the Greek parliament, a bill or proposal for the effective execution of the legislative function is first addressed in committees (Art. 74). Draft laws or proposals that are discussed and voted by the appropriate Standing Committee are, in principle, voted on by the item by item and by the Plenum as a whole. A minimum of seventy-five MP is required for the vote to be valid. The decision taken by the minimum absolute majority gives the result of the voting.
As a result of parliamentarism in the Greek government system, the executive comes out of the legislature. The executive is done by two heads of the government and the President.
The main rule is that all members of the government must be qualified to be elected members of parliament (Art. 81). The leader of the party that obtains the absolute majority of the total number of members in the Parliament is appointed as the Prime Minister. If there is no party with the absolute majority of the total number of members, the party leader with the highest vote is appointed as Prime Minister (Art. 37). The government must receive a vote of confidence from the Parliament to take office. The period of this is the first fifteen days after the oath of the Prime Minister (Art. 84).
The head of state in Greece is the President. The President holds both legislative and executive functions and is elected by parliament by secret ballot, but has limited powers. He is elected for five years and can be elected at most twice (Art. 30). One of the striking conditions of being a president is to be a Christian. (Art. 33). It does not fully meet the freedom to choose and be elected, which should be in these advanced democracies.
A two-thirds majority is needed from the parliament to be elected to the post. If this majority is not achieved in the first round, a two-thirds majority is sought in the second round five days later. Again, if this majority cannot be reached, a three-fifths majority is sought in the third session five days later. If the President cannot be elected in the third round, the Parliament is dissolved, and elections are held with the new Parliament. After the parliament is re-formed, a three-fifths majority of the total number of members is sought in the fourth round of the Presidential election. If the majority cannot be achieved, the candidate who obtains the absolute majority of the total number of members in the fifth round is elected the President. If the quorum cannot be achieved in the fifth round, the candidate who received the highest number of votes among the two candidates who received the highest number of votes in the sixth round is elected President (Art.32).
In the Greek political system, the President has been defined as an authority that is competent to resolve political bottlenecks but has symbolic powers in terms of other powers (Tunç and Park, 2017: 1194).
Within the legislative powers, the President has veto power, but this power is only for once. The authority of the President is bound to the countersignature rule. If an act of the President is not signed by a minister, it will not be valid and not implemented (Art. 35). At the same time, for the President to hold a referendum, the approval of the head of the parliament is required and the text used in his address to the public in case of emergency must be approved by the Prime Minister (Art. 44). These examples demonstrate the existence of a checks and balances system and are one of the requirements of advanced democracy.
In the Greek constitution, the President is the head of the country's National Armed Forces. But command and command are in the hands of the government. The President can also give rank to soldiers in the Armed Forces (Art. 45).
The Constitution also includes articles on political parties. Accordingly, every citizen who has the right to vote can freely join a political party. Political parties are entitled to receive financial support from the state for their activities, but there is a limit to this amount. This is controlled by a special organ. Also, judges and those working in the armed forces are prohibited from expressing opinions about political parties (Art. 29). For a party to be represented in the parliament, it must receive at least 3% of the voters' votes, and the party that provides the majority of the votes gains an additional 50 seats in the parliament. Setting the threshold for representation in the parliament as 3% ensures the representation of citizens from all views. The extra fifty seats, which the party with the most votes received, were intended to facilitate the establishment of the government, but caused the will of the people to not be fully achieved in the parliament.
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