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<blockquote style="position: relative; padding-left: 55px;"><section><a href="https://social.finkhaeuser.de/users/jens/statuses/115616033433915371">Jens Finkhäuser (jens@social.finkhaeuser.de)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Nov-2025 22:28:48 JST</a><a href="https://social.finkhaeuser.de/@jens" title="jens@social.finkhaeuser.de"><img src="https://gnusocial.jp/avatar/8342-48-20220915074146.webp" width="48" height="48" alt="Jens Finkhäuser" style="position: absolute; left: 0; top: 0;">Jens Finkhäuser</a></section><article><p><a href="https://mystical.garden/@fionafokus">@fionafokus</a> I tend to link this directly to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictator%27s_Handbook" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictator%27s_Handbook</a>, which is the popular science version of a 600-something pages academic work. It very clearly explains the mechanics by which tyrannies and democracies form, and it comes down to resources.</p><p>If you have natural resources, you need a small percentage of the population more or less directly involved in extracting them to stay in power. If you don't, then you need to run a service economy. </p><p>A service economy depends on a...</p><p>1/2</p></article><footer><a rel="bookmark" href="https://gnusocial.jp/conversation/5899037#notice-11594068">In conversation</a><time datetime="2025-11-26T22:28:48+09:00" title="Wednesday, 26-Nov-2025 22:28:48 JST">about 5 months ago</time> <span>from <span><a href="https://social.finkhaeuser.de/@jens/115616033433915371" rel="external" title="Sent from social.finkhaeuser.de via ActivityPub">social.finkhaeuser.de</a></span></span><a href="https://social.finkhaeuser.de/@jens/115616033433915371">permalink</a><h4>Attachments</h4><ol><li><article><header><div>Domain not in remote thumbnail source whitelist: upload.wikimedia.org</div><h5><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictator%27s_Handbook">The Dictator's Handbook</a></h5><div></div></header><div>The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics is a 2011 non-fiction book by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith, published by the company PublicAffairs. It discusses how politicians gain and retain political power.
Bueno de Mesquita is a fellow at the Hoover Institution. His co-writer is also an academic, and both are political scientists.
Michael C. Moynihan reviewing the book for The Wall Street Journal stated that the writing style is similar to that of Freakonomics. Moynihan added that the conclusions the book makes originate from the fields of economics, history, and political science, leading him to call the authors "polymathic".
Mesquita and Smith, with other authors, previously wrote about the "selectorate" theory in the academic book The Logic of Political Survival.
The Netflix series How to Become a Tyrant is partly based on this book.Contents
Bueno de Mesquita and Smith argue that politicians, regardless of whether they are in authoritarian dictatorships or in democracies, must stay in power...</div><footer></footer></article></li></ol></footer></blockquote>

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Jens Finkhäuser (jens@social.finkhaeuser.de)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Nov-2025 22:28:48 JST Jens Finkhäuser
@fionafokus I tend to link this directly to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictator%27s_Handbook, which is the popular science version of a 600-something pages academic work. It very clearly explains the mechanics by which tyrannies and democracies form, and it comes down to resources.
If you have natural resources, you need a small percentage of the population more or less directly involved in extracting them to stay in power. If you don't, then you need to run a service economy.
A service economy depends on a...
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In conversationabout 5 months ago from social.finkhaeuser.depermalink
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  The Dictator's Handbook
  The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics is a 2011 non-fiction book by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith, published by the company PublicAffairs. It discusses how politicians gain and retain political power. Bueno de Mesquita is a fellow at the Hoover Institution. His co-writer is also an academic, and both are political scientists. Michael C. Moynihan reviewing the book for The Wall Street Journal stated that the writing style is similar to that of Freakonomics. Moynihan added that the conclusions the book makes originate from the fields of economics, history, and political science, leading him to call the authors "polymathic". Mesquita and Smith, with other authors, previously wrote about the "selectorate" theory in the academic book The Logic of Political Survival. The Netflix series How to Become a Tyrant is partly based on this book. Contents Bueno de Mesquita and Smith argue that politicians, regardless of whether they are in authoritarian dictatorships or in democracies, must stay in power...