John Locke and The Enlightenment.

"All men are created equal." This quote states that everybody is not to be treated differently than others. Everyone should be treated the same. These are the three things that every individual should have and together they form the whole group.
According to the declaration of independence, the government comes from us, the people. We decide who should lead, decide if the choices the government are good ones. One important line from the declaration of independence is that if "Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." It bascially means if the leader is in charge of the power, becomes too power-hungry, then we the people have the right to remove whoever from the position and make changes to the system. We have the right to form a type of government to please to our own "safety and happiness".
You can immediately see the changes in the structure and system in government than from the older ones like monarchy. These ideas were developed and formed by John Locke who gathered ideas for the perfect government from enlightenment thinkers. Those ideas soon formed into what we have now and that is known as a democracy where the people have power in what goes on in their own country or their own nation