The Dictator’s Handbook

Why it’s on the list: Selectorate theory for a general reader: leaders behave badly because the coalition that keeps them in power is small, and everything follows from the size of that coalition.

Where I saw it: Shown on the power-empire-and-guns shelf in the Barnes & Noble Huntington Beach store account’s BookTok video (@bnhuntingtonbeach) — “our personal syllabus for this semester as we say goodbye to tiktok” — saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Books To Read”. Video: https://www.tiktok.com/@bnhuntingtonbeach/video/7461057163067165982

Connections

• Democracy — the contrast case.
• Authoritarianism — what the incentives produce.