Rulers buy consent by supplying subsistence and diversion rather than by governing well.
Juvenal's line from around AD 100, written about the Roman public trading political engagement for grain and games. The mechanism is durable and the diagnosis is contested in most specific applications.
In practice
- A government facing a fuel crisis funds a rebate and a stadium and does not touch the refinery.
- An employer facing a retention problem adds a benefits platform and a summer party, and does not address the manager everyone is leaving.