The Rise and Decline of Nations

by Mancur Olson

‘Olson has got a little bit of a pessimistic view. He makes it sound almost inevitable that free societies will become encrusted with these interest groups that form. It’s not sufficiently in anybody’s interest to oppose them, and because the cost they impose or diffuse over everybody, you need some sort of calamity to wipe them away if you really want growth to happen. It leads one to ask – since we’d rather not have a war or an epidemic that wipes out these structures – what can be done to minimise the stultifying effects?’