Question

Is democracy as a way of life a characteristic of Athens, Sparta, or both?

Answer 1

The correct answer is A. Athens. This is what Athens was famous for.
Sparta, however, had a different system, that of two hereditary kings at any point of time: one to govern and one to lead wars.

Answer 2

A. Athens

The legislative branch of government in Athens had two bodies in it: the Council of 500 and the Assembly of 6,000.

Sparta really didn't have a legislature, but rather the Gerousia, or council of elders, made up of men over the age of sixty.

Athens and Sparta were very different cities.

Athens developed a system that valued philosophy and active political involvement by its citizens in an early form of democracy. (Note that it wasn't full democracy as we'd think of it today, as those who had a political voice were free men, not women or slaves.)

Sparta developed a militaristic system that valued physical training and military service, as well as strict loyalty to the state.