From Cultural Hybrid to Polity: Republican and Democratic Ideas in the War of Greek Independence

The paper examines the circulation of republican and democratic ideas in the times of the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832). The formative years of Greece’s modern state in the War against the Ottoman Empire set up a case study of particular interest both for political scientists and intellectual historians. In the first place, the War served as a chance for testing numerous and quite heterogeneous Western European and American political ideas of novelty of the times in practice, allowing thus their contemporary and retrospective audience to face the realities of an early attempt to introduce republican and democratic practices in a new setting that was soon to merge to a new polity. Furthermore, the privileged interest of Greeks in their classical past also seems to have played a yet more distinctive role in the circulation of these ideas. Finally, in contrast to most Latin-based languages, the Greeks have been tending to adopt a single Greek etymology based on the word demokratia for both republic and democracy, encouraging thus their treatment as an indistinguishable ensemble that challenges relevant present-day academic debates. The main part of the paper is divided as follows: A. Contexts and Method. An outline of the War’s chronological framing and main contexts under consideration and of the method in use. B. Ideas on Republic and Democracy Entering the War. C. Republican and Democratic Ideas in the Course of the War. D. Relevant Interests in the War’s Final Years. E. Conclusions. An overall assessment of the presence of republican and democratic ideas throughout the War and of their importance for Greece’s subsequent constitutional and broader political culture.