ATLAS

The “Provisional Administration of Greece”, the political system established by the First National Assembly (1822) through the adoption of the first revolutionary constitution, laid the foundations for the “Political Existence and Independence” of the Greek nation. The establishment, under the Provisional Constitution, of the Legislative Body — composed of “plenipotentiary deputies elected as representatives of the various parts of Greece” — set the groundwork for the election of representatives from the provinces through voting. The first electoral law, enacted in November 1822, introduced universal male suffrage with an indirect, two-tier voting process, thus setting the foundations for the direct elections that would come much later. The proclamation of the elections emphasized that “priests and laymen, men of every class and condition — in a word, the entire people — have their vote.” Yet, given the circumstances, the law had to reconcile “what was Possible with what was Expedient,” resulting in the adoption of indirect elections.

From this perspective, the term “First Hellenic Republic,” retrospectively used to periodize the early republican regime, carries a deeper and more substantial meaning. It reflects the revolutionaries’ ambition to establish a national state with a democratic orientation, influenced by the revolutionary constitutions of the era. The provision for citizens of the emerging Greek state to elect their representatives — delegates for the Legislative Body and plenipotentiaries for the National Assemblies — can be viewed as the most significant expression of the principle of popular sovereignty in the new polity.

Focusing on the electoral processes, the project “First Hellenic Republic. Atlas of Democratic Institutions and Procedures” highlights the formation and consolidation of democratic institutions during the Greek Revolution, while tracing the transition from the local to the national level.

The project was structured around two main axes: (a) the documentation of the procedures for electing representatives by province, and (b) the recording of how these elections were organized by the central Administration. Based on these axes, the website includes 302 entries that document the election of representatives at the provincial level during the Revolution, as well as four introductory essays on electoral processes. The elections covered include those held after the enactment of the electoral law (November 1822): for the Second National Assembly and Second Legislative Body (1823), the Third Legislative Body (1824), the Third National Assembly at Epidaurus (1825–1826), and the Parliament of 1827. The project also features 71 selected archival documents illustrating the range and diversity of electoral practices during the Greek Revolution.

The Third National Assembly of Troezen (1827) is not included in this study, as its formation followed an entirely different process from the legal framework established by the Provisional Administration.