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The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics Paperback – July 31, 2012
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith’s canonical book on political science turns conventional wisdom on its head. They start from a single proposition: leaders do whatever keeps them in power. They don’t care about the “national interest”—or even their subjects—unless they must. 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.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPublicAffairs
- Publication dateJuly 31, 2012
- Dimensions5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-101610391845
- ISBN-13978-1610391849
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"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
"Simply the best book on politics written.... Every citizen should read this book."―CGP Grey, YouTuber and podcaster
"In this fascinating book, Bueno de Mesquita and Smith spin out their view of governance: that all successful leaders, dictators and democrats, can best be understood as almost entirely driven by their own political survival-a view they characterize as 'cynical, but we fear accurate.' Yet as we follow the authors through their brilliant historical assessments of leaders' choices-from Caesar to Tammany Hall and the Green Bay Packers-we gradually realize that their brand of cynicism yields extremely realistic guidance about spreading the rule of law, decent government, and democracy. James Madison would have loved this book."―R. James Woolsey Director of Central Intelligence, 1993-1995, and Chairman, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
"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."―Roger Myerson, Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago
About the Author
Alastair Smith is the Bernhardt Denmark Chair of International Politics at New York University. The recipient of three grants from the National Science Foundation and author of six books, he was chosen as the 2005 Karl Deutsch Award winner.
They are also the authors of The Spoils of War: Greed, Power, and the Conflicts That Made Our Greatest Presidents.
Product details
- Publisher : PublicAffairs
- Publication date : July 31, 2012
- Edition : Reprint
- Language : English
- Print length : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1610391845
- ISBN-13 : 978-1610391849
- Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #857,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Comparative Politics
- #13 in Fascism (Books)
- #2,587 in History & Theory of Politics
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is Professor of Politics at New York University and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book well-written and informative, providing a useful model for understanding political decision-making. They appreciate its insights into leadership, particularly how autocratic leaders maintain power. The book's cynical tone receives mixed reactions, with some finding it convincingly realistic while others find it depressing.
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Customers find the book insightful, providing a useful model to explain the world and offering short case studies that help understand political decision-making.
"I found "The Dictator's Handbook" to be a fascinating and insightful read...." Read more
"...great tour. very enlightening." Read more
"...to sufficiently reward their essential supporters -- was such a simple idea that I could kick myself for not thinking of this sooner...." Read more
"Excellent book, well written, interesting yet terrifying read...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's insights into leadership, particularly how autocratic leaders maintain their power, with one customer noting how it clarifies why dictators behave as they do.
"...The other main focus of the book is the difference between autocratic and democratic leaders...." Read more
"...If the leader has to please many people, the leader is democratic and tends to do things that are good for the people...." Read more
"The book is not about Dictators specifically but about all forms of leadership and what it takes to get there and remain there...." Read more
"...This books look at politics in general not only explains the behavior of politicians, but the behavior of human society in its natural state...." Read more
Customers have mixed reactions to the book's cynical tone, with several finding it depressingly convincing, while one customer appreciates its refreshing approach.
"Excellent book, well written, interesting yet terrifying read...." Read more
"...There's a tension in The Dictator's Handbook. The authors take a very cynical approach to politics and at times speak of dictators in an epic way..." Read more
"Straitforward, well documented, timely, and depressingly convincing in its appraisal of the universality of the corruption of power." Read more
"...My only complaint with the Dictator’s Handbook is its relentlessly cynical tone; but maybe the authors are simply being honest...." Read more
Reviews with images

Don't know.Dmaged in transit. A soda can crushed in the same package and the book is sticky.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2014Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseThe Dictator's Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith is in many ways trying to be The Selfish Gene of political science. It's a mass appeal non-fiction book that advances a new theory of analysis in their respect fields written in a forceful charismatic style.
The basic theory of The Dictator's Handbook is Selectorate Theory. Selectorate Theory has three basic parts. The first is that leaders will do whatever they can to stay in power regardless of all other factors. The logic of this is that if the leader wouldn't do this, they would be replaced by someone who would.
The second part is that from the leader's point of view there are three groups of people. The first is the interchangables who is everyone is who has at least a nominal say in choosing the leader (such as all voters). For the most part, leaders don't really care about this group except to play against the other two groups (which are subsets of interchangables). The next group are the influential which is everyone who's say actually matters in choosing the leader (such as the majority party in a parliamentary election). The leader has to pay some attention to this group especially in democratic situations. The last and most important group are the essentials. The essentials are those whose support are vital to leader's continual existence as a leader (such as smallest group of voters that can change the outcome of an election). As the essentials have the power to make or break leaders, they are the central target of the leader's policies. From this, political decisions can be understood as the leader trying to stay in power against rivals by using these groups.
The other main focus of the book is the difference between autocratic and democratic leaders. Generally the difference is the different size of the respective regime's influential and essentials. An autocratic leader only has a small group of influentials and essentials. Therefore, it's quite easy to win their loyalty with direct private rewards typically in the form of large gifts or corruption. A democratic leader however has a large group of influential and essentials. So large in fact, there isn't enough resources for the leader to earn their loyalty with direct private rewards. Therefore, a democratic leader must use broad public policies that indirectly benefit the influentials and essentials. These policies often have the side effect of being pretty good for interchangables and those who have no say at all. That's why democracy leads to better conditions for all. However ultimately there's no fundamental difference between the leaders of autocracies and democracies, just the situation.
From all of this, the authors discuss how leaders acquire power, stay in power, get money, get foreign aid, deal with revolution, and wage war. It then ends with how to help make autocracies become democracies, and improve American democracy. The book is downright dripping with realpolitik. Everything that isn't about a leader's continued existence as a leader is treated while not irrelevant, much less important. Social programs sincerely for the general good are treated as discretionary spending by the leader out of surplus funds which otherwise could have been pocketed. These programs also have a very hit or miss record as seen by the author's Hall of Shame and Fame.
There's a tension in The Dictator's Handbook. The authors take a very cynical approach to politics and at times speak of dictators in an epic way such as Liberian dictator Samuel Doe's Scarface-like rise and fall of power. Their cynicism reaches it peak on foreign aid which is viewed as democratic leaders entrenching other country's autocratic leaders to the detriment of that country's people for their own political gain. They are also dismissive of the popular claim of democracies doesn't go to war. Instead democracies act like bullies quite able and willing to fight those much weaker than themselves. However, the authors do try to fight being labeled as cynics with appeals to better more democratic world. Ultimately their stance is “don't hate the player, hate the game.”
My biggest grip with the book is the lack of numbers. While this is a mass appeal non-fiction book, I would like a better idea of what numbers the authors consider democratic versus autocratic. It's quite clear that they don't view the pool of democratic influentials and essentials as 50%+1 as they often only will use numbers like 12% to 25% of the population in thought experiments for these groups. That said, a good rule of thumb seems to be if your nation's influential and essentials can fit in a large football stadium, you're an autocrat.
I would also like more discussion on non-nation politics. It's clear that the authors very much think these rules also apply to all leaders everywhere especially corporate ones which due to rigged elections is autocratic. However outside one example of Fiorina's regime of CEO of HP and a vague “the internet will help democratized corporations!” suggestion at the end, there isn't much discussion of this important angle. I would also like more hard numbers to back up conclusions, though the crunch to statement ratio is about par for most mass market non-fiction works. It may have seemed worse than it was as I was coming off Poor Economics's very number heavy, conclusion light approach.
Overall, I do really like The Dictator's Handbook. To be fair, I naturally have a very realpolitik approach to organizations so it's right up my alley. However, it's helped to fix and formulate some of opinions of various politics both in real life and in world building.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2016Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseNo one rules alone and all rulers depend on a coalition of supporters to keep themselves in power. To keep their coalition's loyalty, they must pay them, and they must pay them first. Only then can the dictator take his share. If there is any surplus, the dictator can build a school or a hospital if he or she feels like it.
This rule of course applies to all dictatorships, say authors Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith, but it also applies just as surely to liberal democracies. It is the size of a ruler’s coalition of supporters that makes a state one or the other.
In a dictatorship, the ruler controls the money and pays off a few cronies, a few generals for instance, who can coerce and control the citizens. The cronies must pay their team, so the ruler must pay his cronies well so they can in turn pay their soldiers. As long as the ruler has the money for all this, nothing will topple him. The money can come from international aid, from income taxes on the citizens or from selling natural resources.
In a liberal democracy, the ruler has much less control over the money. For one thing, most of a country's budget is fixed, civil service pensions, social security, military commitments, etc. For another, the ruler must follow the law when spending what is not already earmarked. He can't just write blank checks to whom he please.
But once those differences are taken into account, power inevitably follows the same principles: all government is about paying off the ruler's coalition.
Effective rulers keep their coalitions small. A city in California did this by relying on voter apathy. Hardly any one voted in municipal elections so that a few hundred voters in effect controlled the budget and paid themselves lavish salaries.
To pay the coalition in poor countries, the dictator insists on handling any cash given as aid; he’ll redistribute it and if the needy are very lucky they’ll get a tiny bit of it. In rich dictatorships, the dictator sells oil or metals or any other valuable commodity and keeps the money for his cronies and himself while providing minimal health and education services to the poor, if they really have to. In a
The same rules apply in rich countries: the ruler pays off the electors with universities, infrastructure and healthcare. And he will still get kicked out in a few years because inevitably the large coalition will feel it isn’t getting enough.
This is not a libertarian manifesto! The authors are quite clear: the answer is MORE government, not less, or at least much more of the good kind of government.
First, we should aim for a larger coalition of cronies, a coalition that in effect includes every citizen. That way, the only way for the ruler to pay off the cronies is to deliver public goods that pay off everyone.
Second, we should improve governance. That way policy decisions are made more transparently and the money can’t be easily diverted to a small clique of hidden enforcers.
My only complaint with the Dictator’s Handbook is its relentlessly cynical tone; but maybe the authors are simply being honest.
Vincent Poirier, Montreal
Top reviews from other countries
- यह पेड़ ग्राफ्टिंग (मल्टी कलर) नहीं है। मुझे एक रंग के फूल का पेड़ भेजा गया है।Reviewed in India on June 20, 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Book
Excellent product, but page and price not good
- Lavender HoneyReviewed in Canada on November 15, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars A Disturbing Look at the Ruthless Logic of Power -- Eye-Opening Yet Unsettling!
Format: HardcoverVerified PurchaseThis book is an incredibly fascinating, if unsettling, deep dive into the cold mechanics of power and the strategic behaviors that keep dictators, leaders, and lawmakers in control. It doesn’t romanticize governance or give you feel-good examples of leaders making noble choices; instead, it offers an unfiltered view of how and why power is maintained by rewarding loyalty, manipulating resources, and sometimes sacrificing the public good to keep a leader’s grip on authority.
One of the most interesting aspects is the clear breakdown of what the author call the "rules of legislating" --from manipulating resources to keeping a small coalition of loyal supporters happy. The logic they present is brutally rational: a leader’s goal isn’t to serve the public but to stay in power, and this focus drives every decision. I found myself both fascinated and disturbed by how deeply ingrained these principles seem to be, not just in dictatorships but also in democratic systems, albeit in more subtle forms.
What’s particularly powerful here is how these concepts apply across different types of governance, whether in autocratic regimes or democracies. This book doesn't hold back...lol..showing how even leaders we might view as "good" often operate within these same principles to maintain their position. The author demonstrate with real-world examples how even idealistic leaders often resort to calculated tactics to keep their allies close and competitors at bay.
One downside, though, is that the writing can feel a bit dry and repetitive at times. The author go into great detail on each principle and example, which is thorough but sometimes feels a little too much. If you're new to this type of science or the study of power dynamics, the relentless focus on ruthless behavior may feel overwhelming or even cynical. However, if you can get past the repetitive structure, the insights are quite extraordinary.
This book is especially useful if you want to better understand global reasonings and why some leaders act the way they do -- even when it appears damaging to the public. While it doesn’t offer much in terms of solutions to these behaviors, it's an invaluable resource for understanding the practical, if unsettling, dynamics that underlie power. If you’re ready for a book that pulls back the curtain on why "bad behavior" often gets rewarded, this one is eye-opening and essential reading.
Lavender HoneyA Disturbing Look at the Ruthless Logic of Power -- Eye-Opening Yet Unsettling!
Reviewed in Canada on November 15, 2024
One of the most interesting aspects is the clear breakdown of what the author call the "rules of legislating" --from manipulating resources to keeping a small coalition of loyal supporters happy. The logic they present is brutally rational: a leader’s goal isn’t to serve the public but to stay in power, and this focus drives every decision. I found myself both fascinated and disturbed by how deeply ingrained these principles seem to be, not just in dictatorships but also in democratic systems, albeit in more subtle forms.
What’s particularly powerful here is how these concepts apply across different types of governance, whether in autocratic regimes or democracies. This book doesn't hold back...lol..showing how even leaders we might view as "good" often operate within these same principles to maintain their position. The author demonstrate with real-world examples how even idealistic leaders often resort to calculated tactics to keep their allies close and competitors at bay.
One downside, though, is that the writing can feel a bit dry and repetitive at times. The author go into great detail on each principle and example, which is thorough but sometimes feels a little too much. If you're new to this type of science or the study of power dynamics, the relentless focus on ruthless behavior may feel overwhelming or even cynical. However, if you can get past the repetitive structure, the insights are quite extraordinary.
This book is especially useful if you want to better understand global reasonings and why some leaders act the way they do -- even when it appears damaging to the public. While it doesn’t offer much in terms of solutions to these behaviors, it's an invaluable resource for understanding the practical, if unsettling, dynamics that underlie power. If you’re ready for a book that pulls back the curtain on why "bad behavior" often gets rewarded, this one is eye-opening and essential reading.
Images in this review
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EldamiriReviewed in Italy on January 2, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminante
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseLibro bellissimo, ben scritto e chiaro nei suoi riferimenti e nelle fonti. Inoltre le informazioni sono organizzate ottimamente per spiegare i concetti. Meraviglioso, ha cambiato il mio modo di vedere la realtà
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Monica Saenz De DatshkovsyReviewed in Mexico on October 15, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Muy bueno
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseFácil de leer, bien documentado.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Australia on July 31, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastically researched and engagingly written. If you can forgive ...
Format: KindleVerified PurchaseFantastically researched and engagingly written. If you can forgive the authors' tendencies to see everything as a nail solved by their shiny hammer, the information presented is fascinating and entertaining both.