Greece and Modern Democracy

Sparta on the other hand was, very notably, a solely military based posture. However they were not always that way. To avoid an invasion Sparta attacked Athens and was almost crushed for it. Before its near-defeat Sparta was also intellectually based. To avoid another defeat Sparta’s citizens decided to focus more on their military than their intellectuality (pericles). Sparta learned how to defend itself, and was noted for it.

Yet even though they could defend themselves, Sparta preferred to settle disputes non-violently. Between Sparta and Athens, Sparta attempted to exhaust every other option it held possible before attacking Athens. Many movies have incorrectly identified Sparta as a bloodthirsty and power hungry group of savages. I disagree with this statement whole-heartedly because of their desire to remain balanced between intellectuals and militants, their government was very effective (Hooker).

The same is also true of modern democracy. Though many democratic nations are able to destroy their opponents, they prefer to settle disputes non-violently. I believe modern democracy was able to strive as long as it has because of its constant change in politicians. Most forms of modern democracy have one leader that is elected by the people. Once elected, this leader makes most of the nations decisions. Because this person has to make decisions he could not go to war with the country. Because of this the leader did not have to be very physically fit. This person was referred to as either the president or the prime minister. In America our leader is President George W. Bush. Even though I do not find him a very good leader, he has the ability to either send the nation to war, prevent war, or conference until the dispute is settled.

As an example of this we are now at war with Iraq. We could have settled this non-violently, but we decided to invade Iraq, to prove the point that we could protect ourselves. President Bush also has a group of elected officials, who are known as the senate, and House of Representatives, that assist him in making these types of decisions. When he has too much to worry about, or when he decides a problem is too menial to worry about, he has his senate agree on a solution amongst themselves, and send their solutions to him for approval.

In conclusion, even though the two were many years apart, ancient Greek government, and modern democracy were very similar to each other. I believe this is because Greece had a very efficient form of government. When the creators of modern democracy started to develop their ideas they began to take the better points of many different forms to ensure that it was able to govern its nations to the best of its abilities.