In the popular imagination, Sparta is often portrayed as the antithesis of Athenian democracy: a militarized, rigidly hierarchical state ruling an austere society. But the truth of Spartan government and politics is more complicated—and more instructive.

In 508 BCE, visionary statesman Cleisthenes formally declared all freeborn Athenians to be citizens, giving them unprecedented power and a new sense of civic unity. Thus began the world’s first known democracy — an experiment in government by direct popular participation.

The 2025 Illinois state legislative session wrapped on June 1, and it was a bruising one for the climate. Some environmental protection bills are off to the governor to sign, but others were stalled at the last minute.