You also need several independent pieces of government (1) overseeing one another. People tend to underappreciate how the divided powers in the U.S. setup are a

You also need several independent pieces of government (1) overseeing one another. People tend to underappreciate how the divided powers in the U.S. setup are also critical. Different branches of government. Different independent levels of government. And so on. To some degree, the frustrations in America right now are due to the erosian of that system of separated powers, generally in favor of a national bureaucracy, which I don't thing many voters actually like. (1) And, ideally, other social institutions would be in the mix, but those vary more by country. Having a monarch around to berate political leaders for nonsense helps with some things. A free press helps with others. Strong protest culture, etc.