#selectorate theory

[nicdevera]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_qpNfXHIU)

[nicdevera]

Finished reading The Dictator’s Handbook, considering wading through The Logic of Political Survival. Thoughts, comments, criticism are welcome.

[principleofplenitude]

[realisthappenings]

The Dictator's Handbook: A Book Review

It's books like this that make me seem cynical to others. Bruce Bueno De Mesquita and Alastair Smith are well respected political scientists so when I heard they had a book coming out I was thrilled. When it became apparent it was also a "readable" book, AKA one that you don't need a political science degree to understand, I only anticipated it further. I wasn't disappointed either. BdM and Smith do an excellent job of presenting a monster theory. You see, while they just refer to their ideas as the dictator's handbook or rules to rule by, it's pretty easy to use their ideas about power, leadership, incentives, and foreign relations as a theory to be used to explain all politics. However, when your dealing with a theory this broad you have to be very careful. BdM and Smith certainly cherry-picked examples to best suit their causal explanations and outright ignored examples that would have contradicted it. I would have been more persuaded if they included examples that are good counters to their argument and attempted to explain them.  Overall there is certainly value in what is known academically as their Selectorate theory; and if you've ever wondered why the US gives a lot of money to dictators, or why some autocrats stay in power despite immense cruelty towards their people, or why resource rich countries remain poor backwaters, or even why democratic countries win wars more often than authoritarian states, then you will find some compelling answers in this book. I'm pretty pumped to read their academic articles on Selectorate theory now. See ya