Spin Dictators

The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century

By: Sergei Guriev, Daniel Treisman

Narrated by: David de Vries

Hitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades, a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. In place of overt mass repression, rulers such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin the news to engineer support. Uncovering this new brand of authoritarianism, Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman explain the rise of such "spin dictators", describing how they emerge and operate, the new threats they pose, and how democracies should respond.

Spin Dictators traces how leaders such as Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Peru's Alberto Fujimori pioneered less violent, more covert, and more effective methods of monopolizing power. They cultivated an image of competence, concealed censorship, and used democratic institutions to undermine democracy, all while increasing international engagement for financial and reputational benefits. The book reveals why most of today's authoritarians are spin dictators - and how they differ from the remaining "fear dictators" such as Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad, as well as from masters of high-tech repression like Xi Jinping.

©2022 Princeton University Press (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Academic Style

Facts including numbers are more academic than entertaining. The review has to have specific words.

Excellent analysis with mediocre presentation

Excellent analysis and examples of force dictators, spin dictators, corruption of democratic states by dictators’ use of democratic covers and consultants. But presentation undermines book. Reader uses tone of a commentator for sports betting. I would have preferred a reader who more obviously takes the material seriously.

Very interesting

This book is an important read (listen) in todays world. Keep in mind the publishing date tho.

Fascinating yet incomplete

Analysis of the world's spin dictators with no reference to Israel's Bibi Netanyahu leaves this book sorely lacking.
Otherwise, it's both interesting and thoughtful.

Fantastic

A deep and well researched phenomenon of spin dictatorships presented in an engaging and easy to comprehend manner. Gives you great insight into what happens with the modern day authoritarian regimes and what awaits them. Great read, can highly recommend!

A powerful exposé of today's dictators

Packed with the history of authoritarinism and today's tactics of modern dictators, and how to counter them. A fine balance of historical fact and a broad range of statistics. If one is at all concerned about today's geopolitics, this book will shed light in dark corners and give hope. And hope starts with cleaning up our (U.S.) act.

Great book from great economists

This is a handbook how to defend against spin dictators. Hopefully we will get rid or all dictators of any kind within a few decades especially one in Russia(

Wide coverage and evidence based

I liked the wide, deep and comprehensive coverage of specific examples. At the same time authors identified patterns and trends based on evidence of statistics and backed by sensible scientific models. In general, I got to realise that a dictator in my home country was not an evil genius, but rather a routine trend follower. The books also gives hope, because the global trend is towards democracy.
I did not like the narrator, who is too rythmic and detached from the content.

All about dictatorship

Everything you need to know about dictatorships. Very good book. Good job. A lot of research was done.