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the3romes's review against another edition
fast-paced
2.0
Interesting concepts, but the writing is repetitive; an essay when removing all the filler.
y4le's review against another edition
4.0
I like the 'grand unified theory of politics' feeling that this gives. Most political theories treat democracy and monarchy as apples and oranges, there are separate approaches to describe each with some discontinuity at an unspecified point in the middle. Here, the author applies their ideas to democracy and monarchy on the same footing and views them as either end of a spectrum. Despite the elegance of this approach, it seems a bit reductionistic. Politics is a very difficult subject to nail down.
Recommended for anyone interested in political theory
Recommended for anyone interested in political theory
omikun's review against another edition
5.0
Illuminating! Approaches the understanding of how people run countries (and other organizations) from a first-principle thought process: What are their incentives to stay in power? Some dictators want their country to prosper but all of them want to stay in power. To stay in power, they must keep their coalition of supporters happy. The coalition is the group of people that keeps them in power or have the ability to remove the dictator/president/CEO. This simple principle has several radical implications:
1. They want to keep their coalition small, or otherwise more manageable and easier to manipulate. This could be achieved by throwing out coalition members, adding their friends or other supporters into the coalition.
2. Small coalitions a disincentivized to grow their size because every incremental addition to the group means a significant cut to their cut from the dictator (usually). When a certain size is reached, there is an inflection point where increasing the coalition results in net benefit to the country and balanced out the drop in their cut.
3. Larger coalition results in a country that prioritizes the country and the well-being of the citizens. A democracy has a very large coalition, so their government is incentivized to treat the voting block better. However, they also want to reduce the size of the voting block as well.
4. Foreign aid to a dictatorship often goes straight into the coalition’s coffer. They view any aid as a revenue stream. If they actually cared about their citizens, they would spend money on them. However, in a dictatorship, the citizens are not a part of the coalition.
5. Governmental foreign aid is often used, not to aid the citizens of the foreign country, but to back the dictator so they will support whatever the donating country wants in international affairs (Japan’s hunting of whales, USA’s fight against communism, etc)
6. Wiping debt or handing money to a dictatorship simply allows them to borrow more money and run up even higher debt, as their only incentive is to satisfy their coalition with more resources.
7. Countries with bountiful natural resources and small coalitions means the citizens suffer worse from lack of infrastructure or public spending, because then the country relies even less on taxes on the citizen, they can get all their income from the available natural resources (oil).
Overall a very insightful read and lots of gems to think about how countries are run and what incentives they have.
1. They want to keep their coalition small, or otherwise more manageable and easier to manipulate. This could be achieved by throwing out coalition members, adding their friends or other supporters into the coalition.
2. Small coalitions a disincentivized to grow their size because every incremental addition to the group means a significant cut to their cut from the dictator (usually). When a certain size is reached, there is an inflection point where increasing the coalition results in net benefit to the country and balanced out the drop in their cut.
3. Larger coalition results in a country that prioritizes the country and the well-being of the citizens. A democracy has a very large coalition, so their government is incentivized to treat the voting block better. However, they also want to reduce the size of the voting block as well.
4. Foreign aid to a dictatorship often goes straight into the coalition’s coffer. They view any aid as a revenue stream. If they actually cared about their citizens, they would spend money on them. However, in a dictatorship, the citizens are not a part of the coalition.
5. Governmental foreign aid is often used, not to aid the citizens of the foreign country, but to back the dictator so they will support whatever the donating country wants in international affairs (Japan’s hunting of whales, USA’s fight against communism, etc)
6. Wiping debt or handing money to a dictatorship simply allows them to borrow more money and run up even higher debt, as their only incentive is to satisfy their coalition with more resources.
7. Countries with bountiful natural resources and small coalitions means the citizens suffer worse from lack of infrastructure or public spending, because then the country relies even less on taxes on the citizen, they can get all their income from the available natural resources (oil).
Overall a very insightful read and lots of gems to think about how countries are run and what incentives they have.
lukedaloop's review against another edition
4.0
Very thought-provoking. And interesting take on politics that sheds light on the decisions of those in power and helps to foster an idea of what the average citizen should do to help prevent our leaders from gorging themselves at our expense.