The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
Language: English
Published by PublicAffairs,U.S., 2022
- Softcover
- Used
Seller: World of Books Inc, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.World of Books Inc
AbeBooks seller since March 23, 2026
Condition: Used - Good
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Add to basketItem description from seller
"A lucidly written, shrewdly argued meditation on how democrats and dictators preserve political authority." -Wall Street JournalBruce 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.
Seller Inventory # CIN1541701364G
- Title
- The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
- Author
- Alastair Smith
- Publisher
- PublicAffairs,U.S.
- Publication year
- 2022
- Condition
- Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1541701364
- ISBN 13
- 9781541701366
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.
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About the Author
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.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
World of Books Inc
Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since March 23, 2026
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