We no longer think of statutes as typically, let alone invariably, the product of well-meaning efforts to maximize the public interest by legislators who are devoted to the public interest and who are the faithful representatives of constituents who share the same devotion. … The theory of social choice has instructed us about the difficulties of aggregating preferences by the method of voting, while the interest-group theory of politics in the version revived by economists has taught us that the legislative process often caters to the redistributive desires of narrow coalitions and, in so doing, disserves the public interest, plausibly construed.

XREF: Connects to interest-group/public choice theory rooted in economics (Stigler, etc.) and Arrow's social choice work on voting aggregation.

Richard A. Posner, Richard A. Posner - What Ha…, loc. 107