Russ Roberts talks with Hoover Institution and NYU political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita about his theory of political power--how dictators and democratically elected leaders respond to the political forces that keep them in office. This lengthy and intense conversation covers a wide range of topics including the evil political genius of Lenin, the dark side of US foreign aid, the sinister machinations of King Leopold of Belgium, the natural resource curse, the British monarchy in the 11th century, term limits and the inevitable failure of the standard methods of fighting world poverty.
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, professor at NYU, talks about the political economy of political campaigns and his forthcoming book, The Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin. He talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the different...
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita of Stanford University's Hoover Institution and New York University talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about threats to U.S. security, particularly Iran. Bueno de Mesquita argues that Iran is of little danger to the United States...
READER COMMENTS
Lauren
Aug 17 2006 at 6:54am
Don’t miss these insightful comments
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sa
Aug 21 2006 at 9:17am
this was an excellent podcast. loved it.
Stuart Berman
Aug 22 2006 at 10:16pm
Very insightful podcast. There is so much thought provoking content it needs to be listened to several times especially when considering how this theory could be applied to foreign policy.
Arnold Kriegbaum
Aug 27 2006 at 11:38am
This is riveting. This is why I wade through a couple dozen podcasts, because I every so often am shown a kernal of new insight that changes my thinking about how the world works.
By the end, Russ seems rather depressed about the implications for humanity, as if being reminded of a high school date that went very badly. Still, I would bet that while the coalitions of control etc. are not new ideas to economists, they were very new to me.
Thank you for this excellent podcast, which proves that there is huge value in all the energy put into this computer stuff.
Isaac Crawford
Sep 4 2006 at 10:43am
A great podcast. Thought provoking and gave me a new way of thinking about things. Studying political economy is one of the surest ways to make one cynical and/or libertarian minded. Thanks for the great info!
Isaac
Erik Guffy
Sep 5 2006 at 7:23pm
Fascinating podcast. Cheers to Roberts and Bueno de Mesquita.
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