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How a new breed of dictators holds power by manipulating information and faking democracyHitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. In place of overt, mass repression, rulers such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbn control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin the news to engineer support. Uncovering this new brand of authoritarianism, Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman explain the rise of such "spin dictators," describing how they emerge and operate, the new threats they pose, and how democracies should respond.



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Sergei Guriev

Sergey Maratovich Guriyev (Russian: ?????? ????????? ??????, Ossetian: ??????? ?????? ???? ??????/Gwyriaty Maraty fyrt Sergej) is a Russian economist, who is Provost and a professor of economics at the Instituts d'études politiques in Paris (Sciences Po) . In 2016-2019, he was the chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He was a Morgan Stanley Professor of Economics and a Rector at Moscow's New Economic School (NES) until he resigned on 30 April 2013 and fled to France.



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