[cookiecaper]

Government always derives its powers from the consent of the governed, no matter what system is in place. If the mass of the populace wants to break a group badly enough, they'll do what it takes to see that group broken no matter what the constitutional form of government allows. All you can hope is that you have a system that's good enough at keeping that barrier sufficiently high that you essentially need a supermajority of enemies before that happens to anyone in particular. The American system has done a semi-good job at it even though there have been several major oversights (African slavery, Mormon persecution, Japanese internment, etc).