Dictators Walking the Mogadishu Line : How Men Become Monsters and Monsters Become Men
History offers many examples of dictatorswho worsened their behavior significantly over time (like Zimbabwe’s Mugabe) as well as dictators who displayed remarkable improvements (like Rawlings of Ghana).We show that such mutations can result from rational behavior when the dictator’s flow use of repr...
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
2020
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33528 |
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okr-10986-335282021-05-25T10:54:42Z Dictators Walking the Mogadishu Line : How Men Become Monsters and Monsters Become Men Larcom, Shaun Sarr, Mare Willems, Tim DICTATORSHIP LEARNING POLITICAL VIOLENCE REPRESSION RESOURCE CURSE GOVERNANCE ACCOUNTABILITY History offers many examples of dictatorswho worsened their behavior significantly over time (like Zimbabwe’s Mugabe) as well as dictators who displayed remarkable improvements (like Rawlings of Ghana).We show that such mutations can result from rational behavior when the dictator’s flow use of repression is complementary to his stock of wrongdoings: past wrongdoings then perpetuate further wrongdoings and the dictator can unintentionally get trapped in a repressive steady state where he himself suffers from ex-post regret. This then begs the question why such a dictator would ever choose to do wrong in the first place. We show that this can be explained from the dictator’s uncertainty over his degree of impunity in relation to wrongdoing, which induces him to experiment along this dimension. This produces a setting where any individual rising to power can end up as either a moderate leader, or as a dreaded tyrant. Since derailment is accidental and accompanied by ex-post regret, increasing accountability can be in the interest of both the public and the dictator. 2020-04-03T16:40:32Z 2020-04-03T16:40:32Z 2018-10 Journal Article World Bank Economic Review 1564-698X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33528 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Journal Article Africa Ghana Zimbabwe |
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Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
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Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
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DICTATORSHIP LEARNING POLITICAL VIOLENCE REPRESSION RESOURCE CURSE GOVERNANCE ACCOUNTABILITY |
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DICTATORSHIP LEARNING POLITICAL VIOLENCE REPRESSION RESOURCE CURSE GOVERNANCE ACCOUNTABILITY Larcom, Shaun Sarr, Mare Willems, Tim Dictators Walking the Mogadishu Line : How Men Become Monsters and Monsters Become Men |
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Africa Ghana Zimbabwe |
| description |
History offers many examples of dictatorswho worsened their behavior significantly over time (like Zimbabwe’s Mugabe) as well as dictators who displayed remarkable improvements (like Rawlings of Ghana).We show that such mutations can result from rational behavior when the dictator’s flow use of repression is complementary to his stock of wrongdoings: past wrongdoings then perpetuate further wrongdoings and the dictator can unintentionally get trapped in a repressive steady state where he himself suffers from ex-post regret. This then begs the question why such a dictator would ever choose to do wrong in the first place. We show that this can be explained from the dictator’s uncertainty over his degree of impunity in relation to wrongdoing, which induces him to experiment along this dimension. This produces a setting where any individual rising to power can end up as either a moderate leader, or as a dreaded tyrant. Since derailment is accidental and accompanied by ex-post regret, increasing accountability can be in the interest of both the public and the dictator. |
| format |
Journal Article |
| author |
Larcom, Shaun Sarr, Mare Willems, Tim |
| author_facet |
Larcom, Shaun Sarr, Mare Willems, Tim |
| author_sort |
Larcom, Shaun |
| title |
Dictators Walking the Mogadishu Line : How Men Become Monsters and Monsters Become Men |
| title_short |
Dictators Walking the Mogadishu Line : How Men Become Monsters and Monsters Become Men |
| title_full |
Dictators Walking the Mogadishu Line : How Men Become Monsters and Monsters Become Men |
| title_fullStr |
Dictators Walking the Mogadishu Line : How Men Become Monsters and Monsters Become Men |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Dictators Walking the Mogadishu Line : How Men Become Monsters and Monsters Become Men |
| title_sort |
dictators walking the mogadishu line : how men become monsters and monsters become men |
| publisher |
Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33528 |
| _version_ |
1764478962820448256 |