When a government can remain in power by forming coalitions . . . and when it can use that power to seize revenues from those outside its core constituency, then no group can afford to withhold its political support, for fear of becoming the object of political predation. Redistributive local rivalries can produce a pattern of politics in which citizens compete to back the government in power, thus freeing it from the restraints normally associated with political accountability.
Robert H. Bates, Prosperity and Violence 112 (2001). The passage is about Ghana, but it instantly made me think of Republicans.