I suppose that's right, but I do feel the Anglo-Saxon influence in the British system, and thus that of the US and many Commonwealth countries, doesn't get it's

I suppose that's right, but I do feel the Anglo-Saxon influence in the British system, and thus that of the US and many Commonwealth countries, doesn't get it's fair due. There really isn't any direct line from the British parliament back to Rome or Greece, rather it derives from the Anglo-Saxon Witan and folkmoots. Yes this system was interrupted at the top by th Norman invasion, but it fought it's way back up the power structure into the Model Parliament which had actual elected commoner members. Imagine! I'm sure Greek democracy influenced the process of voting at some point and Athenian democracy set an important cultural and historical precedent, but the principle of commoner representation came from the Anglo-Saxon traditions, at least in England. And then there's the common law system of course.