The Dictator's Handbook
Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics
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Narrated by:
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Dan Woren
About this listen
Now featuring a new chapter on the rise of illiberalism worldwide.
The essential book that lays out the real rules of politics: leaders do whatever keeps them in power, regardless of the national interest.
As featured in the viral video “Rules for Rulers,” which has been viewed over fifteen million times.
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith’s canonical book on political science turned conventional wisdom on its head. They started from a single assertion: leaders do whatever keeps them in power. They don’t care about the “national interest”—or even their subjects—unless they must.
Newly updated to reflect the global rise of authoritarianism, this clever and accessible book illustrates how leaders amass and retain power. 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.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2011 Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith (P)2022 PublicAffairsListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic 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)
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Latin America has often been condemned to failure. Neither poor enough to evoke Africa’s moral crusade nor as explosively booming as India and China, it has largely been overlooked by the West. Yet this vast continent, home to half a billion people, the world’s largest reserves of arable land, and 8.5 percent of global oil, is busily transforming its political and economic landscape.
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Good Reporting / Disorganized Content
- By Steven Schuster on 02-11-12
By: Michael Reid
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American Character
- A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good
- By: Colin Woodard
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
The struggle between individualism and the good of the community as a whole has been the basis of every major disagreement in our history, from the debates at the Constitutional Convention and in the run-up to the Civil War to the fights surrounding the agenda of the Progressives, the New Deal, the civil rights movement, and the Tea Party.
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Biased Misrepresentation
- By Jay Ehret on 06-24-16
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Decline and Fall
- The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America
- By: John Michael Greer
- Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
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The decline and fall of America's global empire is the central feature of today's geopolitical landscape, and the nature of our response to it will determine much of our future trajectory, with implications that reach far beyond the limits of one nation's borders. Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America challenges the conventional wisdom of empire, using a wealth of historical examples combined with groundbreaking original analysis.
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Will insist friends & family read this book
- By Paul on 05-14-16
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The Conscience of a Liberal
- By: Paul Krugman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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America emerged from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal with strong democratic values and broadly shared prosperity. But for the past 30 years, American politics has been dominated by a conservative movement determined to undermine the New Deal's achievements. Now, the tide may be turning, and in The Conscience of a Liberal Paul Krugman, the world's most widely read economist and one of its most influential political commentators, charts the way to reform.
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Great Book!!!
- By carl801 on 12-04-07
By: Paul Krugman
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The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order
- America and the World in the Free Market Era
- By: Gary Gerstle
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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To be sure, neoliberalism has contributed to a number of alarming trends, not least of which has been a massive growth in income inequality. Yet as the eminent historian Gary Gerstle argues in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, these indictments fail to reckon with the full contours of what neoliberalism was and why its worldview had such persuasive hold on both the right and the left for three decades.
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Cursory, unoriginal, class-blind
- By A Reviewer on 10-24-22
By: Gary Gerstle
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Theodore and Woodrow
- How Two American Presidents Destroyed Constitutional Freedom
- By: Andrew Napolitano
- Narrated by: Scott Moore
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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A harsh and revealing political exposé of two beloved presidents. Judge Andrew P. Napolitano reveals how Teddy Roosevelt, a bully, and Woodrow Wilson, a constitutional scholar, each pushed aside the Constitution’s restrictions on the federal government and used it as an instrument to redistribute wealth, regulate personal behavior, and enrich the government. Theodore and Woodrow exposes two of our nation’s most beloved presidents and how they helped speed the Progressive cause on its merry way.
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The Case Against Theodore and Woodrow...
- By Joseph D. Klotz on 03-12-13
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The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution
- Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic
- By: Ganesh Sitaraman
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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For most of Western history, Sitaraman argues, constitutional thinkers assumed economic inequality was inevitable and inescapable - and they designed governments to prevent class divisions from spilling over into class warfare. The American Constitution is different. Compared to Europe and the ancient world, America was a society of almost unprecedented economic equality, and the founding generation saw this equality as essential for the preservation of America's republic.
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Very well done
- By JLyman on 08-27-17
By: Ganesh Sitaraman
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Broke
- The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure
- By: Glenn Beck, Kevin Balfe
- Narrated by: Glenn Beck, Brian Sack
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the words of Harvard economist Niall Ferguson, the United States is “an empire on the edge of chaos.” Why? Glenn Beck thinks the answer is pretty simple: Because we’ve turned our backs on the Constitution. Yes, our country is financially broke, but that’s just a side effect of our broken spirit, our broken faith in government, the broken promises by our leaders, and a broken political system that has centralized power at the expense of individual rights.
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Finally book that has done the reasearch...
- By dah551 on 10-31-10
By: Glenn Beck, and others
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Reason
- Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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From Robert B. Reich, passionate believer in American democracy and public servant, Reason is a guide to confronting and derailing what he sees as the mounting threat to American liberty, prosperity, and security posed by the radical conservatives, Radcons as he calls them.
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Reason
- By Ron Green on 03-13-05
By: Robert B. Reich
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Brazil
- The Troubled Rise of a Global Power
- By: Michael Reid
- Narrated by: Michael Healy
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Experts believe that Brazil, the world's fifth largest country and its seventh largest economy, will be one of the most important global powers by the year 2030. Yet far more attention has been paid to the other rising behemoths: Russia, India, and China. Often ignored and underappreciated, Brazil, according to renowned, award-winning journalist Michael Reid, has finally begun to live up to its potential but faces important challenges before it becomes a nation of substantial global significance.
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Good short history of Brazil, lame pronunciation
- By Bubu Mungani on 07-21-19
By: Michael Reid
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Working Class Republican
- Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism
- By: Henry Olsen
- Narrated by: Derek Shetterly
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Conventional political wisdom views the two most consequential presidents of the 20th century - FDR and Ronald Reagan - as ideological opposites. FDR is hailed as the champion of big-government progressivism manifested in the New Deal. Reagan is seen as the crusader for conservatism dedicated to small government and free markets. But Henry Olsen argues that this assumption is wrong.
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Refreshing and insightful
- By Thomas Marks on 12-16-19
By: Henry Olsen
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Someone Has to Say It
- The Hidden History of How America Was Lost
- By: Tom Kawczynski
- Narrated by: Jeff Winston
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Starting at the turn of the last century, this book lays out systematically how Americans have lost control of our government, of our civil society, of our schools, of our companies, and in many cases, even our families.
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Great and inspiring book
- By K. E. Davila on 07-09-20
By: Tom Kawczynski
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Hopes and Prospects
- By: Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: Brian Jones
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this urgent new book, Noam Chomsky examines the dangers and prospects of our early 21st century. Exploring challenges such as the growing gap between North and South, American exceptionalism (including under President Obama), the fiascos of Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S.-Israeli assault on Gaza, and the recent recent financial bailouts, he also sees hope for the future. Chomsky surveys the democratic wave in Latin America and the growing global solidarity movements.
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An Intellectual Wind Tunnel
- By Cellar_Door_Books on 04-23-11
By: Noam Chomsky
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What listeners say about The Dictator's Handbook
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mike
- 07-06-23
A solid grasp of the concepts—until recent times.
The author does a great job getting into the mechanics of the how and the why of human power dynamics in social structures—but then seems to throw them all out the window after Trump’s election in 2016. Perhaps he did not want to anger the current set of “key supporters.” His apparent sudden naïveté and myopic assessment of current times is surprising to the point where it almost seems intentional.
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- Yuval Kalugny
- 01-29-23
Extremely thought provoking
It's been a few weeks since I listened to this book, but I find myself thinking about it again and again. Very apt for these turmoil times.
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- Ebben Lane
- 01-19-23
Dry
Hard to get into, doesn’t go into details very well. Gives a broad overview of most circumstances and repeats a lot of the same information over and over again. Seemingly biased about the US politics concerning the most recent election, considering it covers fraud and corruption in other countries voting practices yet leaves out the 2020 election allegations.
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- Aaron Howard
- 04-07-24
An eye opening experience.
I enjoyed the historical context in which it was made well documented. A must read for anyone interested in political history.
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- R. G.
- 07-27-24
Abundance of Statistics.
Good detailed dive into the fundamentals of political power dynamics. Authors discuss the causes and effects of the two major political power structures - autocratic and democratic. They provide abundant statistics and graphs to support their models and then weave examples and anecdotes throughout. Great read for today's changing world. I expect most of the hypothesis will still be relevent a century from now.
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- Sam
- 04-13-24
Trump derangement syndrome?
The book starts out ok. The third world information and history is great. But when the author goes into US politics and economics, he definitely has a side he is rooting. I don’t know if he could be more obvious. I was really hoping for a none partisan book on dictatorship. Oh well. Be advised this author may a tendency of TDS.
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- Nels
- 04-19-24
Brilliant Insight, Tainted by Political Bias
Fascinating insight into power and corruption, with thought provoking recommendations. Credibility of the authors is somewhat tainted by political bias. They exhibit a penchant for picking Republicans as examples of negative behaviors while often steering away or softening examples involving Democrats. Their equating of illegal activity that occurred during January 6th 2021 Capitol Hill protests with the WWII attack on Pearl Harbor is unhinged from reality. Though framed in a way convenient to the narrative of the book, conscious or unconscious author bias detracts from an otherwise brilliant work.
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- Joseph
- 07-05-22
This Book Reminds me that Knowledge is Power
This book reminds me that knowledge is power, and the secrets I've learnt from this book make me want to keep it from the rest of the world. It outlines and describes the necessary steps to gain power and hold it in any political situation.
I struggle to write this review as I want to be the sole owner of this sacred knowledge, but I must give credit to where credit is due. The production team and updated version of this book is like the magician uncovering their secrets, taking away the smoke, lies and mirrors of politics giving us the simple trick in its stead.
This knowledge is more powerful the less people know about, but if you've reached this part of the review then you're just as ambitious as me and no words will divert you from your path to power.
Read this book and learn the secrets behind political hegemony.
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- Alfred
- 07-08-23
Ideas about Autocracy and Democracy
Through these lenses of incentives so much seems clearer. Another title could have been The Economics of Politics. The authors lay out some seemingly good explanations and remedies.
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- Renee Miranda
- 04-18-24
Fantastic analysis of the World’s Politics
Unfortunately this book is not taught in schools, to inform their citizens how politics really works, and how to best understand how to influence their local governments to understand that if they do represent their interests they (the politicians) will be out of work. [of course this only works on democratic governments, such as for example the Constitutional Republic in the US]. Unfortunately people are too dumb and are not pursuing their interests through local governments.
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