[ethbr0]

There's also the underappreciated value of institutional inertia.

A large part of why mature democracies work is the historical mass of their institutions serving as ballast to keep the system from oscillating/crashing.

I.e. Courts work in large part because people believe they work. And they believe they work because they've historically worked.

Or, in individual terms in less stable countries: "Why should I act contrary to my individual interests when the state might be gone tomorrow?"

So a big part of creating stability is faking that stability until historical mass has time to form in everyone's minds.