In general, what this comment is saying is that the reason we have democracy now is because people came to understand that it was silly for a single person to make all the decisions.
This comment goes back to when the US fought the British in the Revolutionary War.
When the Colonists won the American Revolution, the one thing that America didn't want was another king-like figure/government and have a repeat of George. That's why when the US first set up the Articles of Confederation, it didn't give power to the government to collect taxes, and most of the power lied with state governments. Because this didn't work, the US set up a democracy to make sure that no one person had to much power over another.
Thus, the system of checks and balances was born between the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial branches of government.
The similarities between early civilizations fall into five facets including agriculture, socialization, and hierarchy, industry, architecture and religion.
