Alastair Smith Books
Alastair Smith is a political economist specializing in political survival and leadership strategies.
Known for: The Logic of Political Survival
Books by Alastair Smith
The Logic of Political Survival
This book presents a unified theory of political survival, explaining how leaders maintain power by distributing resources and rewards to key supporters. The authors develop a formal model of political institutions and incentives, showing how variations in political systems influence policy choices, economic performance, and the likelihood of war or peace. The work integrates insights from economics and political science to explain why some leaders promote prosperity while others foster corruption and repression.
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The Selectorate Theory
At the core of our analysis lies a simple but powerful triad: the selectorate, the winning coalition, and the interchangeables. The selectorate represents all those individuals with a formal say in choosing the leader—it might include the voting public in a democracy or a small circle of elites in a...
From The Logic of Political Survival
Institutional Variation
Different political institutions structure the size and composition of the selectorate and winning coalition. Democracies have expansive electorates—large selectorates—and thus require large coalitions to remain in power. Monarchies and autocracies, by contrast, often limit participation to a very s...
From The Logic of Political Survival
About Alastair Smith
Alastair Smith is a political economist specializing in political survival and leadership strategies.
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Alastair Smith is a political economist specializing in political survival and leadership strategies.
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