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The Dictator's Handbook - Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith

By Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith

Release Date: 2011-09-27

Genre: Political Science

4.5 (36 ratings)
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“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.

The Dictator's Handbook - Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith

By Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith

Release Date: 2011-09-27

Genre: Political Science

4.5 (36 ratings)
Read Download
“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.

More by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith

The Dictator's Handbook

The Invention of Power

The Predictioneer's Game

The Spoils of War

War and Reason

El manual del dictador

The Logic of Political Survival

La invenciĂłn del poder

The Strategy of Campaigning

L'uomo del destino

Anticipating Instability

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