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The cover of The Dictator's Handbook

The Dictator's Handbook

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith, 2011

Two political scientists show that every leader, from dictator to CEO, survives by rewarding a coalition of essential backers, and how that explains corruption, aid, revolts and war.

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12 parts, about 28 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Explains every government through how many supporters a leader needs, and why small circles of backers favor corruption and heavy taxes
  • Applies the same rules to a small town, corporate boards, sports bodies, foreign aid, wars and natural disasters, not only to dictators
  • Offers practical ideas for outsiders, such as soft landings for dictators, escrowed aid and caution about pushing elections for their own sake

Who it is for

  • Readers who ask why bad leaders keep doing bad things
  • Students of politics, business or foreign policy
  • Voters wondering how fragile democracy really is

What the summary covers

  1. Rules to Rule By3 min
  2. The Rules of Politics3 min
  3. Coming to Power2 min
  4. Staying in Power2 min
  5. Steal from the Poor, Give to the Rich3 min
  6. Getting and Spending1 min
  7. If Corruption Empowers, Then Absolute Corruption Empowers Absolutely2 min
  8. Foreign Aid3 min
  9. The People in Revolt3 min
  10. War, Peace, and World Order2 min
  11. Is Democracy Fragile?2 min
  12. What Is to Be Done?2 min

Recommended by

  • R. James WoolseyFormer Director of Central Intelligence
    James Madison would have loved this book.
  • Roger MyersonNobel laureate in economics
    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.
  • CGP GreyYouTuber and podcaster
    Simply the best book on politics written.

About the authors

  • Bruce Bueno de MesquitaPolitical scientist, New York University professor and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution
    • Born in 1946; Queens College BA 1967, then MA and PhD at the University of Michigan
    • Julius Silver Professor of Politics at New York University and Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Hoover Institution
    • Co developer of selectorate theory, the framework behind the book
    • Directed NYU's Alexander Hamilton Center for Political Economy from 2006 to 2016
    • Co founder of Selectors, LLC, a consulting firm that has advised the U.S. Government and Fortune 500 companies
    • President of the International Studies Association in 2001 and 2002
    • Honorary doctorates from Groningen (1999) and Haifa (2016), and the DMZ Peace Prize in Korea
    • Featured in the 2021 Netflix series How to Become a Tyrant
  • Alastair SmithBernhardt Denmark Chair of International Politics at New York University
    • Bernhardt Denmark Chair of International Relations and professor of political science in NYU's Wilf Family Department of Politics
    • PhD in political science from the University of Rochester and a BA in chemistry from the University of Oxford
    • His Rochester dissertation committee was chaired by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, his later co author
    • Assistant professor of political science at Yale University from 1998 to 2001
    • National Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace in 1997 and 1998
    • Won the International Studies Association's Karl Deutsch Award in 2005
    • Recipient of three grants from the National Science Foundation
    • Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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