The Athenian democracy was a direct democracy. This was actually one of the earliest democracies in the world. It lasted for about three hundred years. The women and slaves had no political rights. Only men were considered citizens. The citizens met about forty times a year. Athens was a polis or city-state. There were no kings or queens. The city-states were ruled by the people. One of the more interesting things that the Athenians came up with was the use of a lottery system. The lottery system was used to appoint almost all of the Athenian officials. When the democracy succeeded, many of the other city-states began to incorporate this system into their government.
The Roman republic was indirect. It was ruled by two consuls. The consuls are elected by the assembly, just as the magistrates and tribunes were. The consuls ruled for one year whereas the elected senate governed for life. The assembly is where the citizens went to vote. The citizens were divided into three groups. They were Patricians, Plebeians and Slaves. The Patricians were the wealthy citizens of Rome whereas the Plebeians were not so wealthy. Even though the Plebeians were not of a higher status they were still allowed to vote. As with the Athenian Democracy, women were not allowed to vote.
We, the united states, have adopted a lot of the same practices as the Athenians and the Romans. We have local governments and we also vote for our leaders. Today women are allowed to vote.