The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics

09/26/12 - Wednesday's Topical Currents is with NYU political science professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, co-author of The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics. Perhaps the authors are overly cynical, but a dictator can stay in power as long a ruling coalition can be maintained, even if it is a small minority. Democracies, in contrast, tend to be wide coalition systems and must satisfy a far wider population segment.