The Dictator's Survival Guide
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2018
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How do dictators and authoritarians stay in power? James Tilley, a professor of politics at Oxford University, finds out what's in the dictators' survival guide. How do they control ordinary people and stop revolts? How do they stop rivals from taking over? And how do they manipulate apparently democratic procedures like elections - such as the notoriously fraudulent 2004 vote in Ukraine - to secure their rule? This is another chance to hear a programme, originally broadcast in 2018, that has acquired new relevance.
Producer: Bob Howard Production Coordinators: Sophie Hill and Siobhan Reed Editor: Hugh Levinson
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I commission podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this program from the BBC. |
| 0:39.0 | I'm James Tilly, a professor of politics at Oxford, |
| 0:42.0 | and you're about to hear my program about the strategies |
| 0:44.2 | dictators used to stay in power. |
| 0:47.0 | I ordered my men to set the machine guns on automatic fire to make sure he wouldn't miss. |
| 0:54.0 | On Christmas Day 1989, the last Communist leader of Romania, |
| 1:03.7 | Nikolau Chischescu, was executed by the people he had ruled for 24 years. |
| 1:08.8 | I found 29 cartridges in three rounds. |
| 1:11.8 | The first one hit Nikolai in the knees and the second in his |
| 1:14.9 | chest and the third round hit Elena Chausescu. There are many explanations for why the Chanchesky regime fell. What is less |
| 1:26.9 | often considered is why it survived for nearly a quarter of a century. I'm James |
| 1:31.8 | Tilly, a professor of politics at Oxford and in this episode of analysis I want to find |
| 1:37.0 | out not why dictators like Charchescu are deposed but why so many of them hold on to power for so long. |
| 1:44.0 | About half of all countries and over half the world's population |
| 1:48.0 | are ruled by non democratically elected leaders. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.