The logic of political survival / Bruce Bueno de Mesquita [and others].

Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2003]
  • ©2003
Description
1 online resource (xiii, 536 pages) : illustrations

Availability

Available Online

Details

Subject(s)
Summary note
The authors of this ambitious book address a fundamental political question: why are leaders who produce peace and prosperity turned out of office while those who preside over corruption, war, and misery endure? Considering this political puzzle, they also answer the related economic question of why some countries experience successful economic development and others do not. The authors construct a provocative theory on the selection of leaders and present specific formal models from which their central claims can be deduced. They show how political leaders allocate resources and how institutions for selecting leaders create incentives for leaders to pursue good and bad public policy. They also extend the model to explain the consequences of war on political survival. Throughout the book, they provide illustrations from history, ranging from ancient Sparta to Vichy France, and test the model against statistics gathered from cross-national data. The authors explain the political intuition underlying their theory in nontechnical language, reserving formal proofs for chapter appendixes. They conclude by presenting policy prescriptions based on what has been demonstrated theoretically and empirically.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages 487-518) and index.
Source of description
Print version record.
Contents
  • A theory of political incentives
  • Policy choice and political survival
  • Choosing institutions.
ISBN
  • 9780262269520 ((electronic bk.))
  • 026226952X ((electronic bk.))
  • 058548080X ((electronic bk.))
  • 9780585480800 ((electronic bk.))
  • 9780262025461
  • 0262025469 ((Trade Cloth))
OCLC
53883013
International Article Number
  • 9780262025461
Other standard number
  • (WaSeSS)ssj0000193870
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