At the height of their influence in the ancient world, Greek culture was organized around the "city-state." Certainly geographic influences would have shaped that development, each area being mostly a self-contained economic and political unit; the concept of a direct democracy kept the "politics" (literally, the affairs of the polis, or city) local. There was no need for any kind of overarching government; that would have been geographically and politically impossible, and would have been antithetical to democratic principles. Perhaps the reason Greece never became an Empire until the time of Alexander the Great boils down to the fact of its geography. These city-states upon which Greece was organized warred between themselves, the most salient conflict being between Athens and Sparta. Only when the whole of Hellenistic culture became threatened by Persia did they unite to fight, and that union eventually led to a brief Empire-like government until all of Greece became Roman.
First Ancient History, Oxford University Press, 2000, chapters 12 & 13.
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