What is the similarities between American democracy and athinian democracy?

First of all, the idea that Athens (or 'Greece') is the birthplace of democracy is largely a hype created by the British poet Lord Tennyson. Tennyson was a passionate supporter of the Greek struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. He used this - successfully - as an argument to drum up support for the Greek revolution from the West European powers Great Britain and France. In fact, most of ancient Greece never saw anything resembling democracy and Athens' democracy existed only for a limited period in its history.

Athens' democracy mostly took the form of mass meetings of freeborn male citizens on a limited number of subjects. The other form of democracy was also of the mass-meeting variety, where 500 freeborn male citizens acted as judge and jury in trials.

- The best comparison of the ancient 'democracy by mass meetings' with today's forms of democracy is the referendum. It compares well in the sense that both the old plebiscites and the modern referendums happen(ed) only intermittently and focus(ed) on only one or at most a very few important and often at that moment controversial issues.

- The role of citizens in the judicial process can be compared to today's jury duty in those countries where trial by jury exists. In countries like Great Britain the system exists where non-lawyers on certain courts sit as associate judges

The differences between Athens' and today's democracies are:

- There were no elected bodies of representatives with clearly defined powers and terms of office in ancient Athens, such as the USA's Congress

- Women had absolutely no political or other rights. They were considered the possession of first their fathers, then of their husbands, who could legally do with them as they saw fit

- all executive positions in Athens were in the hands of the families that formed the olicharchy; these officers were not answerable to the people - although more than a few over time were killed by mobs if things really went wrong.