[shaki-dora]

It's true that any codified protection of individual rights is worth nothing without people motivated, either in- or extrinsically, to uphold them.

But the power of such shape public opinion, and even people's sense of their, and their country's, identity.

The US, for example, has long had a strain of something akin to "patriotism to the constitution". It's a collective narrative that makes people believe in those rights (and the rule of law). And even those that do not share that believe have historically been motivated to play along, because it was the only way to stay what's called "acceptable company" (or "electability").

Of course we're currently running an experiment if that mechanism still works when 47% of the voting population and half the elected representatives decide to try something else for a change. Currently, it's only parts of the judiciary, and of the media, holding everything up. we'll see how it ends.