Spin Dictators

Spin Dictators PDF Author: Daniel Treisman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691247617
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year An Atlantic Best Book of the Year A Financial Times Best Politics Book of the Year How a new breed of dictators holds power by manipulating information and faking democracy Hitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. In place of overt, mass repression, rulers such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin the news to engineer support. Uncovering this new brand of authoritarianism, Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman explain the rise of such “spin dictators,” describing how they emerge and operate, the new threats they pose, and how democracies should respond. Spin Dictators traces how leaders such as Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori pioneered less violent, more covert, and more effective methods of monopolizing power. They cultivated an image of competence, concealed censorship, and used democratic institutions to undermine democracy, all while increasing international engagement for financial and reputational benefits. The book reveals why most of today’s authoritarians are spin dictators—and how they differ from the remaining “fear dictators” such as Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad, as well as from masters of high-tech repression like Xi Jinping. Offering incisive portraits of today’s authoritarian leaders, Spin Dictators explains some of the great political puzzles of our time—from how dictators can survive in an age of growing modernity to the disturbing convergence and mutual sympathy between dictators and populists like Donald Trump.

Spin Dictators

Spin Dictators PDF Author: Daniel Treisman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691247617
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Get Book

Book Description
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year An Atlantic Best Book of the Year A Financial Times Best Politics Book of the Year How a new breed of dictators holds power by manipulating information and faking democracy Hitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. In place of overt, mass repression, rulers such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin the news to engineer support. Uncovering this new brand of authoritarianism, Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman explain the rise of such “spin dictators,” describing how they emerge and operate, the new threats they pose, and how democracies should respond. Spin Dictators traces how leaders such as Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori pioneered less violent, more covert, and more effective methods of monopolizing power. They cultivated an image of competence, concealed censorship, and used democratic institutions to undermine democracy, all while increasing international engagement for financial and reputational benefits. The book reveals why most of today’s authoritarians are spin dictators—and how they differ from the remaining “fear dictators” such as Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad, as well as from masters of high-tech repression like Xi Jinping. Offering incisive portraits of today’s authoritarian leaders, Spin Dictators explains some of the great political puzzles of our time—from how dictators can survive in an age of growing modernity to the disturbing convergence and mutual sympathy between dictators and populists like Donald Trump.

Constraining Dictatorship

Constraining Dictatorship PDF Author: Anne Meng
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108834892
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
Examining constitutional rules and power-sharing in Africa reveals how some dictatorships become institutionalized, rule-based systems.

The Dictator's Handbook

The Dictator's Handbook PDF Author: Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
Publisher: Public Affairs
ISBN: 161039044X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Explains the theory of political survival, particularly in cases of dictators and despotic governments, arguing that political leaders seek to stay in power using any means necessary, most commonly by attending to the interests of certain coalitions.

The Dictator's Dilemma at the Ballot Box

The Dictator's Dilemma at the Ballot Box PDF Author: Masaaki Higashijima
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 047290275X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
Contrary to our stereotypical views, dictators often introduce elections in which they refrain from employing blatant electoral fraud. Why do electoral reforms happen in autocracies? Do these elections destabilize autocratic rule? The Dictator’s Dilemma at the Ballot Box argues that strong autocrats who can garner popular support become less dependent on coercive electioneering strategies. When autocrats fail to design elections properly, elections backfire in the form of coups, protests, and the opposition’s stunning election victories. The book’s theoretical implications are tested on a battery of cross-national analyses with newly collected data on autocratic elections and in-depth comparative case studies of the two Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Spin Dictators

Spin Dictators PDF Author: Daniel Treisman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691224471
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
How a new breed of dictators holds power by manipulating information and faking democracy Hitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. In place of overt, mass repression, rulers such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin the news to engineer support. Uncovering this new brand of authoritarianism, Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman explain the rise of such “spin dictators,” describing how they emerge and operate, the new threats they pose, and how democracies should respond. Spin Dictators traces how leaders such as Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori pioneered less violent, more covert, and more effective methods of monopolizing power. They cultivated an image of competence, concealed censorship, and used democratic institutions to undermine democracy, all while increasing international engagement for financial and reputational benefits. The book reveals why most of today’s authoritarians are spin dictators—and how they differ from the remaining “fear dictators” such as Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad, as well as from masters of high-tech repression like Xi Jinping. Offering incisive portraits of today’s authoritarian leaders, Spin Dictators explains some of the great political puzzles of our time—from how dictators can survive in an age of growing modernity to the disturbing convergence and mutual sympathy between dictators and populists like Donald Trump.

Summary of Sergei Guriev & Daniel Treisman's Spin Dictators

Summary of Sergei Guriev & Daniel Treisman's Spin Dictators PDF Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN: 1669385620
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 31

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Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 In 1956, the Chinese-speaking students took over their middle schools in Singapore. The colonial authorities dissolved the students’ union and arrested its leaders, saying the organization had been infiltrated by communists. In protest, thousands of teenagers flooded onto their school grounds. #2 Lee Kuan Yew, the leader of Singapore, had a very different approach to dealing with the Chinese protesters in Tiananmen Square than Deng Xiaoping did. He wanted to keep the country’s politics and economy strictly under his control. #3 In the 1950s, authoritarian rule was identified with violence. Around the globe, brutal regimes continued to kill their citizens by the thousands. In communist states, the body counts were staggering. #4 20th century dictators used violent repression to stay in power, but they also took pride in their gory exploits, which they made sure citizens knew about. The West underwent a revolution in penal philosophy and practices between 1760 and 1840, with the deliberate infliction of pain giving way to more humane and invisible punishments.

How Dictatorships Work

How Dictatorships Work PDF Author: Barbara Geddes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107115825
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Explains how dictatorships rise, survive, and fall, along with why some but not all dictators wield vast powers.

The Dictatorship Syndrome

The Dictatorship Syndrome PDF Author: Alaa Al Aswany
Publisher: Haus Publishing
ISBN: 1912208601
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
The study of dictatorship in the West has acquired an almost exotic dimension. But authoritarian regimes remain a painful reality for billions of people worldwide who still live under them, their freedoms violated and their rights abused. They are subject to arbitrary arrest, torture, corruption, ignorance, and injustice. What is the nature of dictatorship? How does it take hold? In what conditions and circumstances is it permitted to thrive? And how do dictators retain power, even when reviled and mocked by those they govern? In this deeply considered and at times provocative short work, Alaa Al Aswany tells us that, as with any disease, to understand the syndrome of dictatorship we must first consider the circumstances of its emergence, along with the symptoms and complications it causes in both the people and the dictator.

The Desktop Digest of Despots and Dictators

The Desktop Digest of Despots and Dictators PDF Author: Gilbert Alter-Gilbert
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620877465
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
The Desktop Digest of Dictators and Despots is a compendium and quick reference guide to history’s most notorious absolutist rulers and authoritarian regimes. In a handsome hardcover format, this handy encyclopedia of totalitarians is as informative as it is titillating, a lurid panorama of history’s most malignant autarchs with original full-color portraits and accompanying psychobiographical profiles. From pharaohs to ayatollahs, from Caesar to Hitler, here are fifty-three profiles of history’s most warped personalities and their shocking crimes. Roman Emperor Nero, who lit the roads to the Coliseum’s night games by lining them with human torches made of the burning bodies of crucified Christians Alfredo Stroessner, under whose administration Paraguay offered comfortable refuge to former Nazis while rifle-toting “sportsmen” flocked to the countryside on weekends to legally hunt Indians Idi Amin, the dictator of Uganda, where power outages at the capitol were a routine occurrence because the sluiceways at the nearby hydroelectric dam were clogged with the bodies of so many citizens executed in his torture cells that the pampered local disposal team—the crocodiles—couldn’t eat them fast enough The horrifying pageant of tyranny has trailed in its wake a vicious train of exploitation, intolerance and oppression—war, conquest, subjugation, slavery, imprisonment, torture and execution—which continues unabated to the present day. Dictators never disappoint when it comes to proving that absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is the perfect handbook for educators, armchair historians, and pop-culture pundits.

Making the World Safe for Dictatorship

Making the World Safe for Dictatorship PDF Author: Alexander Dukalskis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197520138
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Making the World Safe for Dictatorship is about how authoritarian states manage their image abroad using both "promotional" tactics of persuasion and "obstructive" tactics of repression. All states attempt to manage their global image to some degree, but authoritarian states in the post-Cold War era have special incentives to do so given the predominance of democracy as an international norm. Alexander Dukalskis looks at the tactics that authoritarian states use for image management and the ways in which their strategies vary from one state to another. Moreover, Dukalskis looks at the degree to which some authoritarian states succeed in using image management to enhance their internal and external security, and, in turn, to make their world safe for dictatorship.