Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T19:07:40.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Tinpot and the Totalitarian: An Economic Theory of Dictatorship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Ronald Wintrobe
Ronald Wintrobe*
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I use basic tools of economic theory to construct a simple model of the behavior of dictatorships. Two extreme cases are considered: a “tin-pot” dictatorship, in which the dictator wishes only to minimize the costs of remaining in power in order to collect the fruits of office (palaces, Mercedes-Benzes, Swiss bank accounts), and a “totalitarian” dictatorship, whose leader maximizes power over the population. I show that the two differ in their responses to economic change. For example, a decline in economic performance will lead a tin-pot regime to increase its repression of the population, whereas it will lead a totalitarian government to reduce repression. The model also shows why military dictatorships (a subspecies of tin-pots) tend to be short-lived and often voluntarily hand power over to a civilian regime; explains numerous features of totalitarian regimes; and suggests what policies will enable democratic regimes to deal with dictatorships effectively.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 84 , Issue 3 , September 1990 , pp. 849 - 872
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alesina, Alberto. 1988a. “Credibility and Policy Convergence in a Two-Party System with Rational Voters.” American Economic Review 78:796–807.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto. 1988b. “Macroeconomics and Politics.” In NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1988, ed. Fischer, Stanley. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1951. The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Arjomand, Said Amir. 1986. “Iran's Islamic Revolution in Comparative Perspective.” World Politics 38:383–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arrow, Kenneth J. 1971. Essays in the Theory of Risk Bearing. Chicago: Markham.Google Scholar
Bahry, Donna, and Silver, Brian. 1986. “Intermediation and the Symbolic Uses of Terror in the USSR.” American Political Science Review 81:1065–97.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary. 1983. “A Theory of the Competition among Pressure Groups for Political Influence.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 98:371–400.Google Scholar
Bialer, Seweryn. 1980. Stalin's Successors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bilson, John. 1982. “Civil Liberties—An Econometric Investigation.” Kyklos 35:94–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brennan, Geoffrey, and Buchanan, James. 1980. The Power to Tax: Analytical Foundations of a Fiscal Constitution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Breton, Albert, and Wintrobe, Ronald. 1975. “The Equilibrium Size of a Budget-Maximizing Bureau.” Journal of Political Economy 83:195–208.Google Scholar
Breton, Albert, and Wintrobe, Ronald. 1982. The Logic of Bureaucratic Conduct. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breton, Albert, and Wintrobe, Ronald. 1986. “The Bureaucracy of Murder Revisited.” Journal of Political Economy 94:905–26.Google Scholar
Broszat, Martin. 1981. The Hitler State: The Foundation and Development of the Internal Structure of the Third Reich. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Burrowes, R. 1968. “Totalitarianism: The Revised Standard Version.” World Politics 21:272–94.Google Scholar
Collier, David, ed. 1979. The New Authoritarianism in Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ferejohn, John A. 1974. Pork Barrel Politics. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. 1956. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Friedrich, Karl, and Brzezinski, Zbigniew. 1965. Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Galeotti, Gianluigi, and Breton, Albert. 1986. “An Economic Theory of Political Parties.” Kyklos 39:47–65.Google Scholar
Galeotti, Gianluigi, and Forcina, Antonio. 1989. “Political Loyalties and the Economy: The U.S. Case.” Review of Economics and Statistics 71:511–17.Google Scholar
Gastil, Raymond. 1980. Freedom in the World, Political Rights, and Civil Liberty. New York: Freedom House.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich. 1944. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hibbs, Douglas A. Jr., 1987. The American Political Economy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hough, Jerry, and Fainsod, Merle. 1979. How the Soviet Union Is Governed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kater, Michael. 1988. “Problems of Political Reeducation in West Germany, 1945–1960.” In Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual, vol. 4. Chappaqua, NY: Rossel Books.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Gavin. 1974. The Military in the Third World. New York: Scribne's.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, Jeane. 1982. Dictatorship and Double Standards: Rationalism and Realism in Politics. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Klein, Benjamin, and Leffler, Keith. 1981. “The Role of Market Forces in Contractual Performance.” Journal of Political Economy 89:615–41.Google Scholar
Kornai, Janos. 1980. Economics of Shortage. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Landes, William, and Posner, Richard. 1975. “The Independent Judiciary in an Interest Group Perspective.” Journal of Law and Economics 18:875–902.Google Scholar
Larsen, Stein U., Hagtvet, Bernt, and Myklebusc, Jan P.. 1980. Who Were the Fascists? Social Roots of European Fascism. Oslo: Universitets for Leget.Google Scholar
Lazear, Edward, and Rosen, Sherwin. 1981. “Rank-Order Tournaments As Optimum Labor Contracts.” Journal of Political Economy 89:841–64.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1960. Political Man. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Lott, J. R. Jr., 1987. “Political Cheating.” Public Choice 52:169–86.Google Scholar
Matthews, Mervyn. 1978. Privilege in the Soviet Union. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Nelson, Philip. 1970. “Information and Consumer Behavior.” Journal of Political Economy 78:311–29.Google Scholar
Nordlinger, Eric A. 1970. “Soldiers in Mufti: The Impact of Military Rule Upon Economic and Social Change in the Nonwestern States.” American Political Science Review 64:1131–48.Google Scholar
Nordlinger, Eric A. 1977. Soldiers in Politics: Military Coups and Government. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Ofer, Gur. 1987. “Soviet Economic Growth, 1928–1985.” Journal of Economic Literature 25:1767–1833.Google Scholar
Paldam, Martin. 1987. “Inflation and Political Instability in Eight Latin American Countries, 1946–83.” Public Choice 52:143–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perlmutter, Amos, and Bennett, Valerie Plave. 1980. The Political Influence of the Military: A Comparative Study. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Posner, Richard. 1975. “The Social Cost of Monopoly and Regulation.” Journal of Political Economy 83:807–27.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 1967. “Toward Explaining Military Intervention in Latin American Politics.” World Politics 20:83–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schap, David. 1988. “Property Rights and Decision Making in the Soviet Union: Interpreting Soviet Environmental History.” Economic Inquiry 26:389–401.Google Scholar
Schapiro, Leonard. 1971. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Schmitter, Phillipe C. 1971. “Military Intervention, Political Competitiveness, and Public Policy in Latin America, 1950–67.” In On Military Intervention, ed. Janowitz, Morris and van Doorn, Jacques. Rotterdam: Rotterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Carl. 1983. “Premiums for High-Quality Products As Returns to Reputation.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 98:659–79.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Carl, and Stiglitz, Joe. 1984. “Equilibrium Unemployment As a Worker Discipline Device.” American Economic Review 74:433–44.Google Scholar
Stepan, Alfred. 1971. The Military in Politics: Changing Patterns in Brazil. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Telser, Lester. 1980. “A Theory of Self-enforcing Agreements.” Journal of Business 53:27–40.Google Scholar
Tullock, Gordon. 1967. “The Welfare Costs of Tariffs, Monopolies, and Theft.” Western Economic Journal 5:224–32.Google Scholar
Tullock, Gordon. 1987. Autocracy. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijihoff.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry R., Shepsle, Kenneth, and Johnsen, Christopher. 1981. “The Political Economy of Benefits and Costs: A Neoclassical Approach to Distributive Politics.” Journal of Political Economy 89:642–69.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry R., and Marshall, William J.. 1988. “The Industrial Organization of Congress; or, Why Legislatures, Like Firms, Are Not Organized As Markets.” Journal of Political Economy 96:132–63.Google Scholar
White, Stephen. 1986. “Economic Performance and Communist Legitimacy.” World Politics 38:462–82.Google Scholar
Willerton, John P. Jr., 1987. “Patronage Networks and Coalition Building in the Brezhnev Era.” Soviet Studies 39:175–204.Google Scholar
Wintrobe, Ronald, and Breton, Albert. 1986. “Organizational Structure and Productivity.” American Economic Review 76:530–38.Google Scholar
Wintrobe, Ronald. 1987. “The Market for Corporate Control and the Market for Political Control.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 3:435–46.Google Scholar
Wintrobe, Ronald. 1988. “The Efficiency of the Soviet System of Industrial Production.” European Journal of Political Economy 4:159–84.Google Scholar