How are Athenian direct democracy and US representative democracy similar?

In both, everyone is allowed to vote.
In both, the government is run directly by the citizens.
Both have the same citizenship requirements.
Both have a governmental body that passes laws.

1 answer

The similarities between Athenian direct democracy and U.S. representative democracy can be nuanced, but the best option from the ones you've provided is:

Both have a governmental body that passes laws.

In Athenian democracy, the Assembly (Ekklesia) was responsible for making laws and decisions directly through citizen votes. In contrast, the U.S. representative democracy has a legislative body (Congress) that passes laws on behalf of the citizens, with elected representatives making those decisions.

The other options provided either contain inaccuracies (such as "In both, everyone is allowed to vote," since citizenship and voting rights vary significantly between the two systems) or misstate the nature of governance (since direct democracy involves direct citizen participation in decision-making, while representative democracy delegates that role to elected officials).