In a lot of countries, "the people are the state" is only nominally true. Special interests often carry the day, and anyway in a partisan environment devoid of

In a lot of countries, "the people are the state" is only nominally true. Special interests often carry the day, and anyway in a partisan environment devoid of principles we need to protect against moments of passion where a 51% majority can infringe on the rights of 49% (or in my country, a largely elite 10%--which helms universities and media institutions and so on--can use the state to push their ideology on the other 90%).