The Political Economy of Power

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2006

⏱️ 88 minutes

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Summary

Russ Roberts talks with Hoover Institution and NYU political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita about his theory of political power--how dictators and democratically elected leaders respond to the political forces that keep them in office. This lengthy and intense conversation covers a wide range of topics including the evil political genius of Lenin, the dark side of US foreign aid, the sinister machinations of King Leopold of Belgium, the natural resource curse, the British monarchy in the 11th century, term limits and the inevitable failure of the standard methods of fighting world poverty.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty,
0:03.5	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of George Mason University,
0:06.5	podcasting today from Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:10.0	My guest today is Bruce Blanett and Mesquita, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution,
0:14.5	and the Silver Professor of Politics at New York University.
0:18.0	Bruce has written and researched widely in the area of international relations and political economy.
0:23.0	He is one of the most creative political scientists of his generation.
0:27.0	His most recent book is the Logic of Political Survival with Alistair Smith,
0:31.5	Randolph Severson, and James Morrow, published by MIT Press in 2003,
0:37.0	and is the author of the forthcoming book, which will be published by the University of Michigan,
0:41.5	Strategies of Campaining, that he's written with Condoleezza Rice,
0:45.0	Kyron Skinner, and Serhi Kudelia.
0:48.0	Bruce, welcome to Econ Talk, thank you.
0:50.0	Bruce, I want to talk today about the Logic of Political Survival,
0:53.0	your most recent book, which has some fascinating theories about leadership
0:59.5	and public policy, growth, taxation,
1:03.0	rather remarkable set of implications drawn out from a very sophisticated mathematical theory,
1:09.0	but that theory can be explained in common sense English.
1:12.0	I bet anyway.
1:14.0	Can you give that a shot for us?
1:16.0	Yeah, I can do that.
1:17.0	It is, by the way, not my most recent book.
	...

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