In Read Write Own, Dixon argues that governance participation faces free-riding and is unlikely by itself to sustain token demand.

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Designed with built-in faucets to reward staking, they can counteract demand pressure by adding to the token supply, potentially depressing prices. This is why blockchain networks like Ethereum combine access sinks with security sinks and why their communities fine-tune token inflows and outflows to ensure balance. Too much of one or the other can throw a system out of whack. The last common type of sink we'll cover here is governance sinks. Some tokens give users the power to vote on changes to the network. Users will buy tokens, so the thinking goes, to gain more influence. The incentive to vote gets people to acquire and hold tokens, taking them out of circulation, therefore generating demand for tokens and a resulting sink. Governance sinks can, however, suffer from free rider problems. Free ridership happens when people don't vote. They might skip out because they think the outcomes of the vote don't matter or because they believe an election will swing their way regardless of whether they participate. Governance tokens help keep networks democratic, but they are unlikely to sustain token demand all by themselves.