How To Be a Modern Autocrat
A conversation with Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman on spin dictators, the power of manipulation and why Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone back to rule by fear.
Increasingly, he prefers a captive audience.
Photographer: Dmitry Azarov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
Old-school fear dictators are defined by their reliance on terror and overt censorship. New-generation autocrats, by contrast, arrest less and lie more. They wrap themselves in the theatrics of democracy, lean on information manipulation and project competence. These strongmen still want control — but they aim to achieve it with the agility of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, not the brutality of Josef Stalin.
In their new book “Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century,” Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman lay out the characteristics of this new look, and its consequences. I spoke to them about the risks and rewards, why spin dictatorships don’t always last and why Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone back to heavy-handed methods of the past.