"Hitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. In place of overt, mass repression, rulers such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbâan control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin news to engineer support. Uncovering this new brand of authoritarianism, Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman explain the rise of such 'spin dictators, ' describing how they emerge and operate, the new threats they pose, and how democracies should respond."--Back cover.

Sergei Guriev is professor of economics and provost at Sciences Po in Paris and former chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Twitter @sguriev Daniel Treisman is professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of The Return: Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev. Twitter @dstreisman