Spin Dictators

The Changing Face of Tyranny in the Twenty-First Century

The great dictators of the 20th century—Hitler, Stalin and Mao—ruled through brutal repression. Many also imposed an official ideology and isolated their states from the outside world. In recent decades, however, the face of dictatorship has changed. A new generation of well-dressed and media-savvy strongmen are reinventing authoritarian rule for an era of global interconnectedness. Instead of annual parades and prison camps, these leaders control their citizens by manipulating information and simulating democratic procedures.
Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin the news to win support. The book traces the rise of such “spin dictators” around the world—men like Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. It shows how these rulers differ from the remaining “fear dictators,” such as Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad, and from such masters of hi-tech repression as Xi Jinping. Based on rigorous research but written in accessible language, the book seeks to unravel a great political puzzle of our time: how can dictators survive in an age of deepening modernity? It explains why this new type of dictatorship is emerging, how it works, what threats such regimes pose, and how the West can best counter them.