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

by Bueno De Mesquita, Bruce; Smith, Alastair

• ISBN13: 9781610391849
• ISBN10: 1610391845
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-31
• Publisher: PublicAffairs

Summary

For eighteen years, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith have been part of a team revolutionizing the study of politics by turning conventional wisdom on its head. They start from a single assertion: Leaders do whatever keeps them in power. They don't care about the "national interest"--or even their subjects--unless they have to. This clever and accessible book shows that the difference between tyrants and democrats is 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. The picture the authors paint is not pretty. But it just may be the truth, which is a good starting point for anyone seeking to improve human governance.

Author Biography

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 sixteen books, including The Predictioneer's Game.

Alastair Smith is professor of politics at New York University. The recipient of three grants from the National Science Foundation and author of three books, he was chosen as the 2005 Karl Deutsch Award winner, given biennially to the best international relations scholar under the age of forty. They are also the authors of The Spoils of War: Greed, Power, and the Conflicts That Made Our Greatest Presidents.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Rules to Rule By	p. ix
The Rules of Politics	p. 1
Coming to Power	p. 21
Staying in Power	p. 49
Steal from the Poor, Give to the Rich	p. 75
Getting and Spending	p. 101
If Corruption Empowers, Then Absolute Corruption Empowers Absolutely	p. 127
Foreign Aid	p. 161
The People in Revolt	p. 195
War, Peace, and World Order	p. 225
What Is To Be Done?	p. 251
Acknowledgments	p. 283
Notes	p. 287
Index	p. 301
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