Two books that have influenced my view on these matters are
https://www.amazon.com/Political-Economy-Dictatorship-Wintro...
and
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674537514
One theme in the first is that a tinpot dictator wants to keep as much of the country's wealth for themselves and spend the minimum on oppression and buying people off so you don't need to spend on oppression. Replace "themselves" with "donors" and you are talking about politicians in democratic countries, particularly after the Reagan era in the US.
Another is the difference between racism in South Africa and racism in the US. If 10% of the population stole 10% of the wealth of the rest, the privileged class could nearly double its standard of living. (South Africa) If 90% percent of the population stole 10% of the wealth of the rest (arguably the US) the recipients would hardly notice, even stealing 90% of the wealth of the victims would create an immiserated class without all that much benefit to the benefactors.
Olson would point out that small minorities can profitably organize politically to benefit themselves at the expense of the majority, but it's truly rare to see programs like Social Security and Obamacare [1] that have wide benefit because they have substantial costs; the cause of "throw corrupt politicians out" which is of interest to everyone except a tiny minority of politicians and donors is increasingly out of reach because the majority is divided by... identity politics.
[1] A diagnosis of why the health care system is so intractable in the US is that it is not a "system" but divided into employer health insurance, medicare, medicaid, Tricare, VA, statewide Obamacare markets, etc. The relative ease of implementing partial solutions that satisfy a few people is favored by social physics but means we pay more for a system where we fall through the cracks. Similarly poverty programs oriented around "protected classes" will always have a margin of people who have the same problems as people in protected classes (I see hillbillies have "black problems" including meaningless but fatal encounters with the police) which leads to the spectacle of "spending more and more" and "the problem goes away" which alienates voters from responsible politics.