Mancur Olson’s scientific contributions

... What explains this higher rate of non-participation by these social strata, even in participatory institutions that aim to widely promote their participation? The literature offers various explanations, whether rational, linked to the dilemmas of collective action (Olson, 1965;Dahl, 1970), or related to the social costs and incentives of participation (Pateman, 1970;Bobbio, Matteucci & Pasquino, 1992;Verba, Schlozman & Brady, 1995), or institutional, to name a few. Without disregarding these factors, it is argued that there are also strictly political and behavioral factors associated with non-participation: skepticism, characterized by distrust and low expectations of participatory democracy (Bennett et al., 2013;Garcia-Espin & Ganuza, 2017), and polarization, which widens the gap between the engagement of politically extreme individuals and the average voter, who becomes disillusioned by polarized discourse and does not see themselves represented by either pole (Fiorina, 2017;Fiorina, Abrams & Pope, 2004). ...

Reference:

Skepticism and polarization: political determinants of non-participation in participatory institutions