The Greek Government

The Greek government has dug the entire country of Greece into quite the hole over the past couple of decades. Though Greece boasts beautiful landscapes and isles, a rich history, and many people who are proud of their heritage, the country has been in financial turmoil and the Greek government is to blame. With just a 14% internal approval rating and 91% of the country’s citizens sensing corruption (1), the legitimacy of the Greek government is certainly brought into question. For the purpose of this essay, I will explore and attempt to measure the legitimacy of the Greek government based on Max Weber’s three types of legitimacy: traditional, personal/charismatic, and social. (2) It would seem that a country with a long-standing history such as Greece would have traditional legitimacy, however, that is not necessarily the case. Greece is one of the oldest countries in the world, with some of the world’s first advanced civilizations appearing around 3200 BCE. In 508 BCE Athens created the world’s first democratic system. (3) Many of the political ideas that are currently used in the world came from ancient Greece. However, though the country has existed for thousands of years, there has been a lot of recent reform in its government,
As I’ve previously mentioned, the Greek government has an incredibly low approval rating of just 14%. The people of Greece largely do not approve nor agree with their government, and that certainly hurts its legitimacy. Greece is currently in what is known as “The Greek Depression,” a financial crisis so severe that some have even declared it worse than the US Great Depression of 1929. (6) Greece currently is in so much debt that the amount owed equals up to 174% of its total GDP. (7) In order for Greece to increase its legitimacy among other countries, it needs to first fix its own crisis and regain social legitimacy from its own