The Dictator's Handbook

Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics

Contributors

By Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

By Alastair Smith

Formats and Prices

Price

$11.99

Price

$15.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around September 27, 2011. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

A groundbreaking new theory of the real rules of politics: leaders do whatever keeps them in power, regardless of the national interest.

As featured on the viral video Rules for Rulers, which has been viewed over 3 million times.

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith’s canonical book on political science turned conventional wisdom on its head. They started 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 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. 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.

Genre:

On Sale
Sep 27, 2011
Page Count
352 pages
Publisher
PublicAffairs
ISBN-13
9781610390453

Bruce Bueno De Mesquita

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

About the Author

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is the Julius Silver Professor of Politics at New York University and was director of its Alexander Hamilton Center for Political Economy from 2006–2016. He is the author of twenty-three books, including The Dictator’s Handbook (with Alastair Smith).

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Alastair Smith

About the Author

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 40.

He is also the author of The Spoils of War: Greed, Power, and the Conflicts That Made Our Greatest Presidents.

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