A dedicated single-issue group can dominate an apathetic electorate

Evidence

With an apathetic electorate, a dedicated group organized around a narrow issue can exercise electoral power well beyond its numbers. … The NRA wields powerful influence over legislators through both carrots (campaign contributions) and sticks (the threat of electoral opposition) (Spitzer, 2014). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1106

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: how concentrated-intensity minority preferences routinely defeat majority preferences in democratic systems — from the NRA to zoning NIMBYs to school boards.
• XREF: Echoes Mancur Olson’s logic of collective action and the general theory of concentrated benefits vs. dispersed costs; also resonates with the Milgrom law-merchant work on reputation systems. — connects to: Small networked elite groups can dominate policy debates without being a majority — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 443