In the main centres of the Revolution, the local notables, the priesthood and the chieftains (klephts and armatoles) were the social elites of the conquered Christian society before the Revolution. The communal administration expanded, especially in regions in which the overwhelming bulk of the Greek-Christian population was wealthy and constituted the social-political local elites of the communal administration. The communal leaders carried out the economic duties of the communities and intervened in their communication with the Ottoman administration. The most powerful, the local notables, (proestoi, prokritoi, prouchontes, or kotzabasides as they were called) participated in regional administrative organs of a consultative character. Their role allowed them to participate in the subleasing of taxes, a very profitable activity. In some cases, as in the Peloponnese, they took part in the consultative organs of the regional administration (pashalik), acquiring wealth (mainly land), social influence and political power. Among such families were the Sisinis from Gastouni, the Londos from Aigio, the Zaimis and the Charalampis from Kalavryta and the Deligiannis from Karytaina, who, from the beginning of the Revolution, were the heads of their respective regions and the main figures in the political controversies and conflicts until 1833.

The powerful families of notables on the islands of the Argosaronic Gulf and the Cyclades were also leading figures, sometimes as allies and other times as adveraries of the notables from the Morea. The special privileges and the expanded system of communal administration in relation to other districts allowed the communal leaders of the islands to acquire social-political power similar to that of the Peloponnesians. They also enjoyed tax farming, but their profit was invested in ships rather than land. Navigation and trade were profitable activities during the 18th century, mainly on islands such as Hydra and Spetses where the families of Kountouriotis and Botasis respectively prevailed. The Napoleonic wars and the blockade imposed by Britain on the sea routes of the Eastern Mediterranean proved to be favourable conditions for the notables of the islands and the shipowners. Their ships, governed by adventurous captains such as Miaoulis, were also involved in the lifting of naval blockades and in piracy as well as the usual activities of navigation and trade.

The higher clergy was also a leading factor. The secular powers possessed by the Patriarch, who was the leader of the subjected Orthodox Christians within the Ottoman system, had contact with the Ottoman administrative organs with the participation of archibishops in regional consultative bodies. Archibishops such as Germanos of Old Patra or Vresthenis Theodoritos played a primary political role especially in the first two or three years of the Revolution. The political importance of the clergy gradually waned, especially after the secession of the Church of Greece from the Ecumenic Patriarchate and its subordination to the control of state power.