Liberalism After the Revolution : The Intellectual Foundations of the Greek State, C. 1830–1880

How is a new state built? To what ideas, concepts and practices do authorities turn to produce and legitimise its legal and political system? And what if the state emerged through revolution, and sought to obliterate the legacy of the empire which preceded it? This book addresses these questions by looking at nineteenth-century Greek liberalism and the ways in which it engaged in reforms in the Greek state after independence from the Ottomans (c. 1830-1880). Liberalism after the Revolution offers an original perspective on this dynamic period in European history, and challenges the assumptions of Western-centric histories of nineteenth-century liberalism, and its relationship with the state. Michalis Sotiropoulos shows that, in this European periphery, liberals did not just transform liberalism into a practical mode of statecraft, they preserved liberalism's radical edge at a time when it was losing its appeal elsewhere in Europe. Cover Half-title page Series page Title page Copyright page Contents Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration List of Abbreviations Introduction The Setting and Its Historians: ‘Failed’ Liberalism and the Power of Tradition Statehood, Civilisation, Jurisdiction Questions of Intellectual History Liberalism(s) in Context(s) Who Were the Jurists? Structure of the Book Chapter 1 Mind the Legal Gap: The Polizeistaat, ‘Enlightened Reforms’ and Their Liberal Critics (1832–1844) Introduction Building a Polizeistaat in Southern Europe: ‘Enlightened Reforms’ in the Nineteenth Century Translating the European Legal Ideal Challenging Universalism through History, or Introducing Roman Law Scholarship Consolidating the Historical School of Law: The ‘German’ Edward Gibbon Intellectual and Political Implications of Legal Discourse Conclusion Chapter 2 ‘Romanist’ Jurisprudence: Liberty, Property and the Virtues of Agrarian Societies (1830s–1850s) Introduction Romanist Jurisprudence and Its Political Implications in Nineteenth-Century Europe The Greek Civil Jurists in the 1840s Roman Law and the Greek State: The Political/Social Agenda Occupation, Sovereignty and Private Property Conclusion Chapter 3 ‘It’s More Than Economics, Stupid’: Political Economy and the Limits of ‘Industrial’ Economics (1840s–1860s) Introduction Political Economy after Adam Smith Political Economy, Civilisation and Manners in South-Eastern Europe Public Economy, Industrial Virtues and the Police State Ioannis Soutsos and the Limits of Industrial Political Economy Economics as the Social and Political Science of Civil Society Conclusion Chapter 4 ‘Let’s Talk about the Nation and the State’: Constitutional Liberalism, Sovereignty and Statehood (Late 1840s–1860s) Introduction Constitutional Liberalism after the French Revolution, or How to Bring the Revolution to a Close Early Greek Constitutionalism between Revolution and Absolutism (c. 1830–1844) Public Law as the Science of Individual Liberty in a Constitutional Nation-State Individual Liberty and National Sovereignty: Constitutional Law and the Domestic Primacy of the State Conclusion Chapter 5 The Law of Nations, Sovereignty and the International Autonomy of the Greek State Introduction Liberalism and International Law in the Nineteenth Century The View from the Periphery Sovereignty, Protection and the Greek State Greek International Thought and the Shifting Meanings of Protection Conclusion Chapter 6 Ideas into Practice: The ‘Lawful’ Revolution and the Building of a New Constitutional Order (1860s–1870s) Introduction The ‘Lawful’ Revolution of 1862: Crisis, Failure of Reforms and the Rise of Political Opposition The Constituent Assembly of 1862–1864 (I): National Sovereignty, the King and Individual Rights The Constituent Assembly of 1862–64 (II): Balancing and Mixing the Powers The ‘Lawful’ Rearrangement: The Political Crisis of 1874–1875 and the Consolidation of Parliamentarism Conclusion Conclusion: Placing Greek Liberalism within a Europe-Wide Perspective Bibliography Primary Sources Archival Material Newspapers and Periodicals Published Sources Treatises, Articles, Memoirs and Other Publications of the Jurists Other Translations Unknown Authors Other Primary Sources Reference Works Published Secondary Sources Index This history of nineteenth-century Greek liberalism and the ways in which it engaged in reforms in the Greek state after independence from the Ottomans challenges our understanding of European liberalism and its relationship with the state.