Kevin Simler

All in all, I highly recommended The Dictator's Handbook. It does what too many works of social science utterly fail to do, i.e., TAKE INCENTIVES SERIOUSLY. It also pairs nicely with The Elephant in the Brain (esp. the chapter on politics). Now some quotes and takeaways...

"The three most important characteristics of a coalition are: (1) Loyalty; (2) Loyalty; (3) Loyalty." — The Dictator's Handbook

"From the perspective of this book, so-called liberals and so-called conservatives appear simply to have carved out separate electoral niches that give them a good chance of winning office." — The Dictator's Handbook

"History is full of democratic Davids beating autocratic Goliaths." — The Dictator's Handbook

"A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason." — J. P. Morgan

The book also has a VERY cynical take on foreign aid (esp. disaster relief) intended to help citizens of autocratic governments: (1) Autocrats take most of the $ for themselves; (2) Knowing aid $ will come creates a perverse incentive not to prevent disasters ahead of time.

Savvy governments (e.g., the US State Department) understand that aid money mostly goes to the dictator and his coalition, which is why they use it for bribes (i.e., to extract policy concessions), all in the guise of "helping the poor."