In the Western tradition,political thinking first emerged as a comparison between different cities and the sorts of values they express.Ancient Athens represented democracy and faith in the ordinary judgments of the people (with the exception of slaves and women) whereas Sparta represented a more oligarchic model with well-disciplined citizen-soldiers (and relatively powerful women) striving for the glory of the state.Different political thinkers took sides,and derived inspiration from these competing models to develop their own theories of political rule.