… is from page 228 of my teacher Randy Holcombe’s excellent 1985 book, An Economic Analysis of Democracy (links added):
The theoretical work done during these decades [1960s and 1970s] has provided explanations for the poor actual performance of government in solving social problems. Many specific studies … cite problems inherent in the existing incentive structure embodied in political institutions. The suggestion is that existing political institutions are not well suited for allocating economic resources. More far-reaching are general studies, such as Arrow’s that show the general inappropriateness of any political institution as a mechanism for choosing social conditions. Arrow showed that under reasonable conditions, collective decision making in any form is not capable of making rational choices among alternative social states.
