Friday, October 2, 2009

World History, October 2nd



Today in World History we are looking at the Athenian model of democracy and comparing it to our own. The founding fathers looked to classical civilizations when creating a new government system and preferred the Athenian model. Unlike a monarchy, which we learned about yesterday, the founding fathers preferred a system that gave the governing powers to its citizens. Several tweaks were necessary to accommodate life in the 1700s but on the whole there were many similarities. These similarities included political powers exercised by the citizens and three separate branches of government. We also learned that when Washington DC was being built there were architectural similarities to Athens, which looked to invoke the democratic ideals through a physical representation. The top photo is the Parthenon in Athens. Below is the United States Supreme Court Building.

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