The system favours them, so they will do anything to uphold it. The more ignorant and illiterate the people are, the easier it is to control them. For this reason, they will make sure to continue to keep the people that way. They weaponise poverty so that once they offer these poor people peanuts, they will be grateful and praise them for it.
People like that can't rise up. If there is an uprising, all the politicians need to do is give the illiterate and ignorant ones some peanuts, and they will fight for them.
Nothing can be done, because they simply refuse to accept criticism and suggestions from their own people, due to their utter greed and avarice.
Something can be done, but those countries are not ready to do it. Nobody hands over power. Human beings are by nature a people of anarchy. This is why there are laws (written or unwritten) in every organisation that humans are involved in. It is futile to expect a human being to simply do what is right. This is why there are laws and punishments for those who break them and a system that makes sure everybody is bound by those laws.
Haven't you thought about the fact there streets need speed bumps? I mean, every human being should know that you are not supposed to speed in a busy street, or a school area where there are kids, but no, there has to be a system that will stop idiots from speeding.
There has to be a camera on a traffic light because humans won't obey it if there is no one there. That is the nature of humans.
So, as a society or people, politicians will only do what you allow them to do. A politician can do whatever he wants in a country, and he would still work freely because people don't say "No, we can't take this". They are either too scared to talk, or worship him too much to speak against him, or they simply don't know it's their job to make sure the politician doesn't go out of line.
Developed countries don't have a system that works simply because the people are good people. It works because there is a system that makes sure everybody does the right thing, and there are consequences for not doing the right thing if you're caught.
The notion that humans are naturally anarchic that without the camera, speed bumps and punishment, we would all just destroy each other. I do not believe that is correct. That is not ours. It will do errands for those who have the keys. Each cage requires an alibi and this is theirs.
People jaywalk. No traffic light has ever been required to have to spare an entire continent's grieving. But people disobey rules from authorities they did not choose and do not trust. Disobedience of this sort has its own logic, older than any law that called for obedience.
You said politicians do what you allow them to do. Technically correct. But, that does not stop one thing from happening, does it? Except that only holds if someone, somewhere, handed you the key marked "refusal". Most did not even get a chance to see the lock. You are born into a place of one thought: This is the way it is; power belongs to the powerful, just as gravity belongs to the earth. There is no exit that is ever set up for you, in case you are waiting around. It was never going to be wit that got you through. It is about imagination. In most cases imagination is the first to die, before anyone even realizes it is gone.