Bruce Bueno De Mesquita · 352 pages
Rating: (3.8K votes)
“Leaders never hesitate to miscount or destroy ballots. Coming to office and staying in office are the most important things in politics. And candidates who aren’t willing to cheat are typically beaten by those who are. Since”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“Paying supporters, not good governance or representing the general will, is the essence of ruling. Buying loyalty is particularly difficult”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“The world of politics is dictated by rules.”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“There is never a point in showing your hand before you have to; that is just a way to ensure giving the game away.”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“Every type of politics could be addressed from the point of view of leaders trying to survive.”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“How do tyrants hold on to power for so long? For that matter, why is the tenure of successful democratic leaders so brief? How can countries with such misguided and corrupt economic policies survive for so long? Why are countries that are prone to natural disasters so often unprepared when they happen? And how can lands rich with natural resources at the same time support populations stricken with poverty? Equally, we may well wonder: Why are Wall Street executives so politically tone-deaf that they dole out billions in bonuses while plunging the global economy into recession? Why is the leadership of a corporation, on whose shoulders so much responsibility rests, decided by so few people? Why are failed CEOs retained and paid handsomely even as their company’s shareholders lose their shirts? In”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“It’s always better for a ruler to determine who eats than it is to have a larger pie from which the people can feed themselves.”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“Democracies are not lucky. They do not attract civic-minded leaders by chance. Rather, they attract survival-oriented leaders who understand that, given their dependence on many essentials, they can only come to and stay in power if they figure out the right basket of public goods to provide.”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“Lee Kuan Yew ruled Singapore from 1959 until 1990, making him, we believe, the longest serving prime minister anywhere. His party, the People’s Action Party (PAP), dominated elections and that dominance was reinforced by the allocation of public housing, upon which most people in Singapore rely. Neighborhoods that fail to deliver PAP votes come election time found the provision and maintenance of housing cut off.18 In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe went one step further. In an operation called Murambatsvina (Operation Drive Out the Rubbish), he used bulldozers to demolish the houses and markets in neighborhoods that failed to support him in the 2005 election.”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“Companies maintain lively web sites to put their view across but entrepreneur-owners have not stepped forward to do the same to help organize the mass of little owners and to provide a way for them to share views. Sure, there are bloggers writing about anything and everything, but there don’t seem to be shareholder-controlled sites to exchange thoughts and ideas about a company that participants own in common.”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“Hasta algunas de las obras de caridad más sencillas tienen consecuencias negativas que incrementan el control por parte del gobierno y la irresponsabilidad de este.”
― Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, quote from The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
Bruce Bueno De Mesquita
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“Text VI,7(3) draws a contrast between the pair of distorted views known as eternalism (sassatav̄da) and annihilationism (ucchedav̄da), also called, respectively, the view of existence (bhavadiṭṭhi) and the view of nonexistence (vibhavadiṭṭhi). Eternalism affirms an eternal component in the individual, an indestructible self, and an eternal ground of the world, such as an all-powerful creator God. Annihilationism denies that there is any survival beyond death, holding that the individual comes to a complete end with the demise of the physical body. Eternalism, according to the Buddha, leads to delight in existence and binds beings to the cycle of existence. Annihilationism is often accompanied by a disgust with existence that, paradoxically, binds its adherents to the same existence that they loathe. As we will see below, the Buddha’s teaching of dependent origination avoids both these futile ends (see IX, pp. 356–57).”
― Bhikkhu Bodhi, quote from In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
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