Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith's 2011 popularization of selectorate theory — arguing that all political systems (democratic and authoritarian) follow the same logic: leaders do what keeps their coalition of supporters satisfied, and the smaller the required coalition, the more corrupt and extractive the regime.
Provides a universal theory of political behavior — selectorate theory's key insight that political survival drives all policy decisions explains both authoritarian corruption and democratic responsiveness through the same mechanism: leaders must satisfy enough supporters to stay in power, and their behavior is determined by how many supporters they need.
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