The distinction between "citizens" (with avenues of non-violent recourse for "bad governance") and "subjects" (who have no such avenues) is well-known enough. Also, your comment:

If people perceive them as the subject of a government, they do not expect State to act in their favor but as a burden at the best and a predator in most of the cases.
is, for example, something that we old folks could have heard and read from (e.g.) Bill Corson re: the impossible position of the South Vietnamese peasant who was beset by the Government of South Vietnam (predatory and "bad") and the Communists ("worse").

In that type of situation, a foreign power (IF it can affect the outcome positively at all) has two bad choices - does it select the "lesser" of two evils; or does it simply walk away ?

The experience of the US in Cold War and post-Cold War "peace enforcement" and associated "nation building" has not been positive. Perhaps, it's time to withdraw from that role ?

Regards

Mike