This is what I think of as Consensus Paralysis. There are usually many reasons to do a thing, and many reasons not to. A sane person or organization would weigh

This is what I think of as Consensus Paralysis. There are usually many reasons to do a thing, and many reasons not to. A sane person or organization would weigh those reasons against each other. However, in most political decision making there's an important asymmetry: any one reason to block action is sufficient, but no number or weight of reasons is sufficient to ensure its progress. In our earnest wish to avoid the tyranny of the majority by requiring full consensus (or close to it), we've handed all of the trump cards to obstructionists. Often a tiny minority, not even pretending to believe in the nominal reason for their objections, can unilaterally block any progress. The US senate is another example of this problem BTW, both in the form of the filibuster and in the general inadvisability of huge omnibus bills that give everyone their very own excuse to oppose without consequence, but maybe that's getting a bit off topic.