The Dictator's Learning Curve

Starred review from April 2, 2012
Totalitarian dictatorships are as obsolete as North Korean propaganda posters, but authoritarian regimes remain plentiful and powerful. In this deft, incisive book, Dobson, the politics and foreign editor for Slate, shows how the rulers of Russia, China, and Venezuela “have gone to great lengths to turn disinterest in political life into a public virtue” by promoting economic prosperity and relying on widespread political apathy. This battle is being joined by highly adaptable and technologically savvy democracy activists, many of them taking their cues from the political philosopher Gene Sharp (author of the nonviolent activist treatise From Dictatorship to Democracy) and veterans of Otpor, the Serbian youth movement that toppled Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. In one colorful passage, Dobson describes visiting a jailed opponent of President Hugo Chávez, then being tailed by Venezuelan security forces, a comic and chilling incident that encapsulates that regime’s nominal openness and its relentless paranoia, fueled “by a siege mentality that saw enemies lurking everywhere.” Dobson also examines the techniques used by dictatorships to hang on to power, from the mix of sanctioned dissent and centralized control of state television in Putin’s Russia to former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak’s brutal methods. The mix of perspectives results in an impressive overview of the global struggle between authoritarian power and determined advocates of political freedom. Agent: Lippincott Massie McQuilkin.

April 15, 2012
A fluid study of how heavy-handed repression by authoritarian regimes has given way to more subtle forms of control. Despite some reassuring advances in democracy over the last 40 years, from the collapse of dictatorships in Latin America, East Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and recent progress since last year's Arab Spring, Slate foreign affairs editor Dobson sees a pernicious, no-less-repressive shift in the tactics of autocrats still hanging on. Old-style authoritarian regimes have given way to modern dictators who "work in the more ambiguous spectrum that exists between democracy and authoritarianism"--e.g., in Russia and China. In chapters that treat the newfangled dictatorial styles of these leaders (e.g., "The Czar" refers to Vladimir Putin; "The Pharaoh" to Hosni Mubarak) alternating with chapters on the increasingly savvy forces working against them ("The Opposition" and "The Youth"), Dobson travels around the globe, from Malaysia to Venezuela, chronicling his encounters with both camps. The tools of the dictator have always involved centralization of power, and for the modern autocrat no less, especially control of TV and newspapers. They are also more careful now not to upset the sense of political apathy, "the grease that helps any authoritarian system hum." While Putin carefully maintains stability and order to keep his grip, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela cultivates popular chaos, stacking all government institutions with supporters so that he has amassed "unchecked executive power." Besides speaking with plenty of brainwashed supporters of these regimes, Dobson sought out activists in the political opposition who have bravely endured terror and intimidation. A pertinent work of journalistic research that will gain fresh meaning as authoritarian regimes both evolve and fall.

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May 15, 2012
After a remarkable year in which citizens of a dozen countries have challenged their authoritarian governments, readers will welcome veteran journalist Dobson's overview of the complicated dance of adaptation by the world's dictators and those who resist their oppressive power. Dobson (now at Slate, previously with Foreign Policy and Newsweek International) spent two years and traveled nearly 100,000 miles in exploring how modern authoritarians have refashioned dictatorship for the modern age, and how their people have responded by finding new ways to assert their own rights. The book's major focus is on Egypt, Russia, and China, with a bit less discussion of Venezuela, Malaysia, and the Ukraine. Perhaps the freshest material here is Dobson's reporting on the sometimes surprising individualsex-activists, academics, exU.S. military officers, exWall Street marketeersinvolved in providing strategic nonviolence training to citizens committed to taking control of their nations back from the dictators. A timely, valuable contribution to readers' understanding of global unrest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)