ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Greece. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Greece. Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. The ensuing century brought continued struggle between royalist and republican forces. Greeks can change their government democratically. The Greek parliament has 300 members, elected for four-year terms by a system of proportional representation. Greece has a long history of jailing conscientious objectors to military service. In 1997, however, the government passed a new law to allow objectors to perform alternative, civilian service. The US State Department issued the Trafficking in Persons Report in 2001, which stated that Greece had failed to end the problem of human trafficking.
