The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
What if every leader—hero or tyrant—played by the same brutal rules to keep their grip on power? The Dictator’s Handbook pulls back the curtain on the unspoken calculus of control, where loyalty is traded like gold and entire nations become pawns in a game only the ruthless master. But when you discover the chilling patterns binding despots and CEOs alike, will you dare to dismantle the system—or find yourself seduced by its ruthless logic?
- Originally Published: September 2011
- Publisher: PublicAffairs
- Published: July 31, 2012
- Genre: Politics
- Pages: 352
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-1610391849
- Access: Members
Description
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.
The Dictator’s Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith offers a provocative and deeply insightful look into the true mechanics of power and governance. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, the authors begin with a stark assertion: leaders, whether democratic or authoritarian, prioritize staying in power above all else—not the national interest or the well-being of their people, except when it serves their own survival.
This groundbreaking book argues that all political systems, from democracies to autocracies, operate on the same fundamental principle: the need to secure the support of a select group of essential backers. The size and nature of this group determine the actions of leaders, the policies they pursue, and the level of freedom, prosperity, or oppression experienced by their citizens. In this framework, democracy is revealed as a convenient fiction, and the difference between governments lies not in their ideals but in how many backs need scratching.
Clever, accessible, and unflinchingly honest, The Dictator’s Handbook sheds light on the harsh realities of political survival. It is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the unvarnished truths of human governance—and perhaps find a way to improve it.
Editorial Reviews
“Simply the best book on politics written…. Every citizen should read this book.”―CGP Grey
“A lucidly written, shrewdly argued meditation on how democrats and dictators preserve political authority…Bueno de Mesquita and Smith are polymathic, drawing on economics, history, and political science to make their points…The reader will be hard-pressed to find a single government that doesn’t largely operate according to Messrs. Bueno de Mesquita and Smith’s model. So the next time a hand-wringing politician, Democrat or Republican, claims to be taking a position for the ‘good of his country,’ remember to replace the word ‘country’ with ‘career.'”―Wall Street Journal
“Machiavelli’s The Prince has a new rival. It’s The Dictator’s Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith…. This is a fantastically thought-provoking read. I found myself not wanting to agree but actually, for the most part, being convinced that the cynical analysis is the true one.”―Enlightenment Economics
“In this fascinating book Bueno de Mesquita and Smith spin out their view of governance: that all successful leaders, dictators and democrats, can best be understood as almost entirely driven by their own political survival-a view they characterize as ‘cynical, but we fear accurate.’ Yet as we follow the authors through their brilliant historical assessments of leaders’ choices-from Caesar to Tammany Hall and the Green Bay Packers-we gradually realize that their brand of cynicism yields extremely realistic guidance about spreading the rule of law, decent government, and democracy. James Madison would have loved this book.”―R. James Woolsey Director of Central Intelligence, 1993-1995, and Chairman, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
“In this book, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith teach us to see dictatorship as just another form of politics, and from this perspective they deepen our understanding of all political systems.”―Roger Myerson, Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.