Terre, paysans et pouvoir politique (Grèce, XVIIIe-XXe siècle)

Land, Peasants and Economic Power — Greece, 18th-20th century. After obtaining its independence in 1830, the new Greek State converted all Ottoman estates into "National Lands". The notables and merchants were neither much interested nor allowed to buy them, but kept their traditional control on taxfarming, trade and credit. The peasants kept their holdings and were allowed to expand to rented and illegally occupied public land. Meanwhile, traditional clientelism blended with early parliamentary democracy and universal male suffrage; and the peasants became a formidable electoral force. Such conditions favoured negotiation, compromise and privilege-sharing between the two politically dominant classes. The Bourgeoisie enjoyed tax-haven legislature, large subsidized credits, and unconditional protectionism, abandoning tax-farming and agricultural credit to the State. The Peasantry peacefully obtained land, tax, and credit reform, product subsidies and cancellation of debts — and this in just over eighty years (1871-1955). The lower urban classes, under- represented in Parliament, paid the bill through heavy taxes and waves of inflation. Their discontent was diverted to chauvinist and populist ideologies; contained through social mobility, civil service recruitments or other spoils; and occasionally suppressed by authoritarian regimes, brief and relatively mild. The interwar crises and World War II reversed this unstable equilibrium and led to a period of conflict and instability.Dertilis Georges B. Terre, paysans et pouvoir politique (Grèce, XVIIIe-XXe siècle). In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 48ᵉ année, N. 1, 1993. pp. 85-107