In the latest installment of his Ideas Matter update, Max Borders uses the video clip below of Walter Williams and James Buchanan to discuss an inordinate fixation on democracy in addressing society’s needs:

As James Buchanan reminds us, majority rule means “the minority is
going to get screwed.” And that’s if the majority can even get its way.
Often it cannot.

What fewer people realize is that while the minority is getting
screwed, the majority is getting screwed too. Buchanan shares a
tradition with Mancur Olsen who figured out the problem of concentrated benefits, dispersed costs.
That is, small interests groups are nimble, vocal constituencies with
direct interests in the outcome of this legislation or that. The rest of
us stand to lose fractions on the dollar, pound, kroner or yen. So we
have little incentive to advocate vociferously for this bill or that —
much less pay attention to its passage. But all these dispersed costs
add up over time in the form of economic malaise. And the special
interests win — at least in the medium term.