It is a sad sights when even true believers lose faith.

The European Union has quietly dropped its goal to become the world’s most competitive economic area by 2010. Whatever that really meant, it would have required nothing short of a miracle. But what triggers an economic miracle? Just over two decades ago, the economist Mancur Olson suggested an unorthodox answer: namely that the key to long-term economic performance is the formation of narrow distributional coalitions.