The Dictator's Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith

The Dictator's Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith

The authors argue that leaders of any political system, democratic or authoritarian, act rationally according to the same underlying logic: stay in power by keeping the smallest possible coalition of essential supporters loyal, however that requires treating everyone else.

Using this selectorate theory, they explain why foreign aid so often entrenches corrupt regimes rather than fixing them, why democracies deliver public goods while dictatorships hoard private ones, and why leaders behaving badly is frequently not a failure of the system but the system working exactly as designed.

A widely cited work of political science that reframes leadership behaviour as rational incentive rather than individual character.

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