From Albion’s Seed, page 896:

There is a cultural equivalent of the iron law of oligarchy: small groups dominate every cultural system. They tend to do so by controlling institutions and processes, so that they tend to become the “governors” of a culture in both a political and a mechanical sense.

The “iron law of oligarchy“: yet another reason not to worship at the altar of democracy.

Recently I quoted Mencius Moldbug:

Just as pornography can stimulate the human sex drive without providing and actual sex, democracy can stimulate the human power drive without providing any actual power.

As the Durants reminded us: “in the end superior ability has its way.”