Well, yes and no. It must true that they are the reflections of the society but this is no reason for them to become populists and sway away from their actual job: Protecting the rights of the people, regardless of their vote, religion or anything that can be used to discriminate them. Yes there are always some people who become evil with their jobs but the percentage of wrongdoers among the politicians tends to be much higher than the society average in every community. I have a few theories on why this is the case but I have no evidence so I think I'll keep them to myself.
> this is no reason for them to become populists and sway away from their actual job
Protecting rights is not as easy as just giving a speech or writing a blog post. It is about engaging with the other side (not just calling them idiots). It is about building social capital. Over decades. So that when the time comes, to take a stand on something, you can cash it in even it is highly unpopular. That is the power great leaders have had throughout history and you cannot accumulate it(nonviolently) without being populist.
Only Americans actually believe that the job of politicians is "protecting the rights of the people", and even then, most non-Libertarian voters in America don't actually believe that's the only job of politicians.
There's a fundamental trade-off: power attracts the corruptible, but a certain amount is necessary to get important jobs done.
European democracies don't believe that the job of politicians is protecting the rights of the people?
I'd say that's exactly what we believe in, it's just that our society has a different view of what the "rights of the people" are. Around here they'd include, as one of our songs says, "peace, bread, housing, health and education".
