You need knowledgeable citizens who are not afraid to act. They will naturally push back those people who seek more power/status.
What you’re describing is the perennially utopian pitch of Marxist societies — a century of failure, not withstanding.
I don't get it. What do you prefer? The inverse?
You are right, and the US won that battle. But let’s wait a few years as that winning looking quite so solid today.