Spin dictators The changing face of tyranny in the 21st century

According to Guriev and Treisman, the advent of the information age has radically changed how dictators maintain their hold on absolute power. While old-school tyrants like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and Idi Amin would imprison and/or slaughter literally millions of people to instill fear and quash dissent, modern tyrants like Russia's Vladimir Putin, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong use subtler, less bloody--though often no less brutal--methods to achieve their goals. They use modern PR tactics, clever disinformation, economic incentives like bribery, and disguised intimidation to bolster their popularity with their populace--Putin's popularity routinely polls from an approval of about 60 percent to an astonishing 90 percent--while effectively negating the power of their opposition. The authors carefully document dozens of strategies used by authoritarian regimes around the world to successfully pass themselves off as populist supporters of democracy when the actual goal is tyranny and absolute power. As depressing as this scenario may be, the authors do politically concerned readers an immense favor, enabling us to recognize these tactics and, with that knowledge, ultimately oppose this new breed of dictator.

Economist Guriev and political scientist Treisman (The Return) examine in this insightful account how modern autocracy has evolved from WWII to the present. Throughout, they contrast new age "spin dictators," including Hungary's Victor Orban, Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , and Russia's Vladimir Putin, who simulate democracy while relying on advances in technology and communications to control their nations, with "fear dictators," such as North Korea's Kim Jong-Un, Syria's Bashar al-Assad, and Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman, who more baldly use repression, censorship, and violence to remain in power. Citing evidence of a "downward trend in violence," including state-sponsored killings and torture, by "nondemocratic leaders" since the 1980s, Guriev and Treisman analyze how modern dictators tolerate criticism in the independent media in exchange for credibility; how lawsuits and arbitrary regulations have replaced outright censorship; how elections are used to convert "mass appeal" into "institutional and political advantages"; and how authoritarian regimes have courted right-wing groups and hired lobbyists to improve their image in the U.S. Intriguingly, the authors suggest that modern autocrats may be part of a global trend toward nonviolence, though this theory needs more evidence. Still, this is an eye-opening and well-informed study of 21st-century geopolitics. (Mar.)