S06E06: Sergei Guriev on the Chang­ing Face of Autocracy 

This episode explores the main dif­fer­ences between con­tem­po­rary, qua­si-dic­ta­to­r­i­al regimes based on spin, and old­er 20th-cen­tu­ry dic­ta­tor­ships based on overt repres­sion and fear. Why do spin dic­ta­tors demon­strate a com­mit­ment to demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions and how do their actions under­mine democ­ra­cy from with­in? Lis­ten to find out what such regimes teach us about inter­nal con­tra­dic­tions of West­ern democ­ra­cies and how sim­i­lar spin dic­ta­tors are to so-called pop­ulist leaders.

Guests fea­tured in this episode:

Sergei Guriev, Provost of Sci­ences Po in Paris. He’s pro­fes­sor of eco­nom­ics there fol­low­ing an out­stand­ing aca­d­e­m­ic career at the New Eco­nom­ic School in Moscow. He was its Rec­tor until 2013 when he was forced by polit­i­cal cir­cum­stances to leave Rus­sia. Between 2016 and 2019, Sergei served as the chief econ­o­mist of the Euro­pean Bank for Recon­struc­tion and Devel­op­ment. And he has held vis­it­ing pro­fes­sor­ships at MIT, Prince­ton. And in 2006, he was select­ed a Young Glob­al Leader by the World Eco­nom­ic Forum.

His very broad research inter­ests span var­i­ous areas of polit­i­cal eco­nom­ics, devel­op­men­tal eco­nom­ics, labor mobil­i­ty, cor­po­rate gov­er­nance and con­tract the­o­ry. And besides numer­ous aca­d­e­m­ic pub­li­ca­tions, he also writes for “The New York Times,” “Finan­cial Times,” “Wash­ing­ton Post,” and “Project Syn­di­cate.” His lat­est book, “Spin Dic­ta­tors,” writ­ten togeth­er with Daniel Treis­man, is a fas­ci­nat­ing account of the chang­ing char­ac­ter of author­i­tar­i­an politics.