One of the broadly-speaking Anglo-Saxon innovations was the idea of a government of laws, and not men. I think it's one of those "good lies"; it isn't ever true, in reality "we're all just folk" and it's always government of men, but it's very good for all members of a society globally to maintain the fiction. Unfortunately, it does require a significant fraction of the society to choose to maintain the fiction (with varying levels of awareness of the fact that it is actually fiction), and locally it advantageous for people of power to implement government of men, not laws.

And in our sophistication pretty much all the intellectuals we've got busily tearing apart all the foundation that "government of laws, not men" is built on. So back to government-of-men we go. Hooray.