KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON has an article at the link were he discusses the stationary bandit model of Government.
The Public Sector: Standing in Our Way until We Pay Up
To me it looks like Government in most of the developed countries conform pretty well to the stationary bandit model, with the bandits being the median voter, but with lots of scams mixed in by which the median voter is scammed by the politicians.
The median voter is like the mob demanding things, but the politicians are like corrupt accountants messing with the books to hide what is really going on. Intelligent, high SES Democrats are happy with the Politicians scamming the people (things like hidden matching FICA) because they think it is for the good. They think what the voters do not know allows for more charity for the poor (the average US citizen thinks he pays into SS and that everyone gets out of SS in direct potion to what they pay in, even though the low earners get more that double high earners per dollar they were taxed). Intelligent Republicans do not like it so much but know fighting it too much is a losing proposition.
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