Throughout its history Greece, in the southeastern corner of Europe, has been strongly influenced by its contact with the sea. Many factors have combined to make it a maritime State: its position at the tip of the Balkan peninsula and at the junction of the sea routes between East and West; its mountainous terrain indented by the sea; and its hundreds of islands, large and small, some 115 of them inhabited, which account for around 13% of the population and roughly 19% of its territory.
Since the creation of the modern Greek State in 1830, there have been many changes in territory - the most recent being the annexation of the Dodecanese in 1948 - and political system: it became a republic in 1974, with a Chamber of Deputies elected by universal suffrage for a four-year period and a President elected by the Chamber for five years.
Law No 1622 of 1986 introduced the present territorial administrative system, with the creation of 13 administrative regions to replace the existing nine programming regions: their role is restricted basically to regional socio-economic planning. They work, as do the 51 departments (nomi), which date virtually from the creation of the Greek State, as a decentralized executive, an extension of central government, which has been given no real power.
The municipalities (dimi or kinótites, depending on size), which form the basis of the territorial administrative system, are the only directly elected territorial authorities - but with limited potential for action.
Mount Athos (336 km2) is a monastic community of some 500 monks and has administrative and economic autonomy.
Text not validated by the National Statistical Service of Greece. The text has been reviewed by a Greek Eurostat official, in March 2004.
