The Dictator's Handbook Quotes

“Cheating does not stop once ballots are cast, of course. Leaders never hesitate to miscount or destroy ballots. Coming to power and staying in power are the most important things in politics. And candidates who aren’t willing to cheat are typically beaten by those who are. Since democracies typically work out myriad ways to make cheating difficult, politicians in power in democracies have innovated any number of perfectly legal means to ensure their electoral victories and continued rule.”
― Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics

“The list of tried-and-true means of cheating is long. Just as quickly as electoral rules are created to outlaw corrupt practices, politicians find other means. For instance, leaders can restrict who is eligible and registered to vote. In Malaysia, under a system known as Operation IC, immigration is controlled so as to create demographics favorable to the incumbent party. Tammany Hall, New York City’s infamous Democratic Party machine, acquired its Irish flavor by meeting and recruiting immigrants as they left the boat, promising citizenship and jobs in exchange for their vote.”
― Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics

“There are three ways for an incumbent leader to leave office, making room for a new leader. The first, and easiest, is for the leader to die. If that convenience does not offer itself, a challenger can make an offer to the essential members of the incumbent’s coalition that is sufficiently attractive that they defect to the challenger’s cause. Third, the current political system can be overwhelmed from the outside, whether through military defeat by a foreign power or through revolution and rebellion, in which the masses rise up, depose the current leader, and destroy existing institutions.”
― Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics

“Bell presents a number of lessons for us about the rules to rule by. First, politics is about getting and keeping political power. It is not about the general welfare of “we the people.” Second, political survival is best assured by depending on few people to attain and retain office. That means dictators, dependent on a few cronies, are in a far better position to stay in office for decades, often dying in their sleep, than are democrats. Third, when the small group of cronies knows that there is a large pool of people waiting on the sidelines, hoping to replace them in the queue for gorging at the public trough, then the top leadership has great discretion over how revenue is spent and how much to tax. All that tax revenue and discretion opens the door to kleptocracy from many leaders, and public-spirited programs from a very few. And it means enhanced tenure in power. Fourth, dependence on a small coalition liberates leaders to tax at high rates, just as Bell’s leaders did. Taxing at high rates has a propensity to foment the threat of popular uprisings.”
― Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics

“Anyone who thinks leaders do what they ought to do—that is, what is best for their nation of subjects—ought to become an academic rather than enter political life. In politics, coming to power is never about doing the right thing. It is always about doing what is expedient.”
― Bruce Bueno de Mesquita;Alastair Smith, The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics

“The choice between enhancing social welfare and enriching a privileged few is not a question of how benevolent a leader is. Honorable motives might seem important, but they are overwhelmed by the need to keep essential supporters happy, and the means of keeping them happy depends on how many need rewarding.”
― Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics

“Alberto Fujimori, presidente de Perú entre 1990 y 2000 (incluyendo un denominado autogolpe en 1992, en el cual suspendió su propio Congreso y su propia Constitución). Es probable que no se llevara más que unos cuantos cientos de millones. Y con la vuelta de Perú a la democracia, Fujimori, que se marchó a un exilio autoimpuesto, se vio extraditado, devuelto a Perú, llevado a juicio y condenado por asesinato, violación de derechos humanos, soborno y muchísimos otros delitos que dieron con él en la cárcel. Él no había hecho sino lo que hace cualquier líder con coalición pequeña, pero tuvo la mala suerte de ser destituido a causa del descontento popular por la corrupción, y ser sustituido por un régimen de coalición grande.”
― Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, El manual del dictador

“Pretty much all of us are greedy, some for money, some for adulation, some for power, but all greedy nevertheless. Some few among us have the opportunity to act on our greed, while most of us are confined to pursuing our greed in minor ways”
― Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics

“En política, llegar al poder nunca tiene que ver con hacer lo correcto. Siempre tiene que ver con hacer lo que conviene.”
― Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, El manual del dictador

“Democrats fight where they have policy concerns... war for democrats is just another way of achieving the goals for which foreign aid would otherwise be used. Foreign aid buys policy concessions, war imposes them... democrats would much prefer to impose a compliant dictator,... then take their chances on the policies adopted by a democrat who must answer to her own domestic constituents”
― Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics