75 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
75 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
**The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good
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Politics** is a 2011 book by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith
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that outlines [selectorate theory](Selectorate_Theory "wikilink"),
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borrowing various examples from history, political science and
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economics.
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## Summary
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### Chapter 1 - The Rules of Politics
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Politics is filled with some pretty big mysteries, like:
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- Why are people dying of starvation in Africa, 3,500 after the
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Egyptian pharoahs worked out how to store grain
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- Why are natural disasters worse in places like Haiti than the USA?
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- Why do democratic leaders support dictatorships whilst claiming to
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support freedom for all people?
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- Why are failing CEOs paid so handsomely while the economy crashes?
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Ultimately, these seem to come down to leaders not living up to espoused
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ideals. Often, these are explained by simply declaring leaders as stupid
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or evil, but this obscures the truth. Politics actually engineers these
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systems, as certain rules are necessary to gain and keep power. If you
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want power, you need the observe three main groups, these are:
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- The nominal selectorate, also referred to as the interchangeables,
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includes every person who has some say in choosing the leader (for
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example, in an American presidential election, all registered
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voters).
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- The real selectorate, also referred to as the influentials, are
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those who really choose the leaders (for example, in an American
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presidential election, those people who cast a vote).
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- The winning coalition, also referred to as the essentials, are those
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whose support translates into victory (for example, in an American
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presidential election, those voters that get a candidate to 270
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Electoral College votes). In a dictatorship, this would be the army,
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tax collectors and business oligarchs.
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In order to gain power, you need to follow five rules:
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1. Keep the winning coalition as small as possible.
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2. Keep the real selectorate as large as possible to discipline the
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winning coalition.
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3. Keep control over as much wealth as possible.
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4. Keep the winning coalition as dependent on you as possible.
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5. Keep money in the hands of the winning coalition, and not in the
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hands of other groups.
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In the suburb of Bell, Los Angeles, it was exposed in 2010 that there
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had been huge amounts of corruption in the local city government.
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Although the budget had been balanced and crime had been reduced. It was
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exposed that local council members had been claiming almost $800,000 in
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yearly salaries for sitting in non-existent town meetings. This was done
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by maintaining a property tax rate twice as high as other suburbs, and
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ensuring local elections only had about 400 voters out of a suburb of
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36,000 people. Anyone who knew of the corruption was quickly bribed and
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given a huge salary.
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### Chapter 2 - Coming to Power
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### Chapter 3 - Staying in Power
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### Chapter 4 - Steal from the Poor, Give to the Rich
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### Chapter 5 - Getting and Spending
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### Chapter 6 - If Corruption Empowers, Then Absolute Corruption Empowers Absolutely
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### Chapter 7 - Foreign Aid
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### Chapter 8 - The People in Revolt
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### Chapter 9 - War, Peace and World Order
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### Chapter 10 - What Is To Be Done? |