The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita · Alastair Smith

Sep 2011 · Sold by PublicAffairs

About this ebook

“A lucidly written, shrewdly argued meditation on how democrats and dictators preserve political authority.” —Wall Street Journal
  Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith’s canonical book on political science turns conventional wisdom on its head. They start from a single proposition: leaders do whatever keeps them in power. They don’t care about the “national interest”—or even their subjects—unless they must. As Bueno de Mesquita and Smith show, democracy is essentially just a convenient fiction. Governments do not differ in kind, but only in the number of essential supporters or backs that need scratching. The size of this group determines almost everything about politics: what leaders can get away with and the quality of life or misery under them. And it is also the key to returning power to the people.

Ratings and reviews

I lived through half my life through a dictatorship (that the book mentioned to be the creme-De-la-creme of dictators) and so many arguments in this book makes so much sense to me. Absolutely one of my top 10 books of all time for me.

I would highly recommend this book as it brings a new perspective on questions that are dominating our world: Why a nation that has sheer endless valuable ground resources lets its citizens starve to their death? How do petty dictatorships stay in power, with a population that has no access to the basic goods? Why are people who live with the most oppressive regimes so calm, while in other places revolutions happen after (seemingly) only a tiny spark have been caused? How does international financial aid affect those autocratic states? Why do the established democracies actually have a vital interest in maintaining dictatorships, rather than really pushing for democratic reforms?

An amazing book, one which doesn't waste your time with filler,but seems in every way to broaden your perspective on politics. An excellent primer for anyone who wants to know politics.

About the author

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is the Julius Silver Professor of Politics and director of the Alexander Hamilton Center for Political Economy at New York University. He is the author of twenty-five books, including The Predictioneer's Game and The Invention of Power.
 
Alastair Smith is the Bernhardt Denmark Chair of International Politics at New York University. The recipient of three grants from the National Science Foundation and author of six books, he was chosen as the 2005 Karl Deutsch Award winner.
 
They are also the authors of The Spoils of War: Greed, Power, and the Conflicts That Made Our Greatest Presidents.