794: Alastair Smith | The Dictator's Handbook Part One
The Jordan Harbinger Show
Jordan Harbinger
4.8 • 12.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2023
⏱️ 67 minutes
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Summary
Alastair Smith is the Bernhardt Denmark Chair of International Relations at New York University, professor of political science in the Wilf Family Department of Politics, and co-author (with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita) of The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics. [This is part one of a two-part episode. Please check back later in the week for part two!]
What We Discuss with Alastair Smith:- How do dictators come to power and remain in power even when their policies serve only themselves and not the people under their "leadership?"
- Why do the majority of people living under dictatorships suffer in impoverished squalor, and how does foreign aid empower these dictators rather than help the general populace?
- Why do dictators consistently hate freedom, the media, and seemingly their own citizens?
- Why does bad behavior so often make for good politics — even in the most progressive nations?
- Are our own governments beyond saving, or can we use lessons learned here to make them work for us?
- And much more...
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/794
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Special thanks to Peloton and Nissan for sponsoring this episode of the Jordan Harbinger Show. |
| 0:05.0 | Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger Show. |
| 0:07.9 | The policies and the dictatorship are designed to enrich the leader and there's |
| 0:13.1 | a bunch of cronies at the top of the system. You know, if you're, I'm going to say taxing, |
| 0:18.0 | but effectively capturing the resources of society and funneling them towards your cronies, |
| 0:24.5 | you're not providing incentives for people to work hard because if you work hard, |
| 0:28.7 | you're not in political insider. Some politicians just going to decide you have something |
| 0:33.2 | nice they want and they'll come take it. You know, they'll lock you up for some crime or maybe |
| 0:37.3 | they'll take it. So they're very unproductive societies in the whole. |
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