Defiant Dictatorships

Why did some Communist and Middle-Eastern dictatorships, those in China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Iran, remained defiantly stable during the onset of a democratic age in the 1980s and early 1990s? The book offers an explanation based upon external relations - the regimes' defiance of external military or political foes - and then searches for alternative or supplementary explanations by examining the changes that occurred in these dictatorships' political structures, ideologies and economic policies during 1980-94.

A serious introduction to the use of nonviolent action to topple dictatorships. Based on the author's study, over a period of forty years, on non-violent methods of demonstration, it was originally published in 1993 in Thailand for distribution among Burmese dissidents.

Explains how dictatorships rise, survive, and fall, along with why some but not all dictators wield vast powers.

European Dictatorships 1918–1945 surveys the extraordinary circumstances leading to, and arising from, the transformation of over half of Europe’s states to dictatorships between the first and the second world wars. From the notorious dictatorships of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin to less well-known states and leaders, Stephen J. Lee scrutinizes the experiences of Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern European states. This fourth edition has been fully revised and updated throughout. New material for this edition includes: the most recent research on individual dictatorships a new chapter on the experiences of Europe’s democracies at the hands of Germany, Italy and Russia an expanded chapter on Spain a new section on dictatorships beyond Europe, exploring the European and indigenous roots of dictatorships in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Extensively illustrated with images, maps, tables and a comparative timeline, and supported by a companion website providing further resources for study (www.routledge.com/cw/lee), European Dictatorships 1918–1945 is a clear, detailed and highly accessible analysis of the tumultuous events of early twentieth-century Europe.

Today more than ever, international headlines are dominated by dispatches from the many dictatorships that still dot the globe. Although Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been deposed, North Korea's Kim Jong-il continues to attract attention on the world stage; at the same time, other dictatorships, led by royal families, military juntas, and single political parties, persist in repressing and brutalizing their citizens without ever attracting anything like Saddam's or Kim Jong-il's level of international attention. In this fascinating, eye-opening read, New York Times bestselling author David Wallechinsky offers in-depth portraits of each of the twenty worst dictators -- and the governments they head -- currently in power: exposing their crimes, and revealing their strange personalities and mysterious backgrounds. Tyrants also reveals the extent that foreign corporations and governments support these tyrants despite their policies. Timely and provocative, crafted with the popular touch that has made Wallechinsky a bestselling author, Tyrants will awaken you to the criminal regimes of the present -- and pose challenging questions about America's role in curbing (or promoting) their power in the future. The Tyrant Hall of Shame includes: Kim Jong-il/North Korea Hu Jintao/China Seyed Ali Khamenei/Iran King Abdullah/Saudi Arabia Muammar al-Qaddafi/Libya Omar al-Bashir/Sudan Islam Karimov/Uzbekistan Saparmurat Niyazov/Turkmenistan Fidel Castro/Cuba

A comprehensive assessment of the nature and evolving character of authoritarian regimes, their changing character and the main theoretical explanations of their incidence, character and performance. The third edition covers the rise of new forms of disguised dictatorship and semi-competitive democracy in the 21st Century.

Leadership in Democracy develops and applies an innovative leadership theory of democracy and political evolution, based upon Schumpeter's famous theories of democracy and economic entrepreneurship. The new theory is applied to the US and British democracies in an assessment of how much entrepreneurial-style, pioneering leadership occurred from the 1960s to the 1990s in the electoral, governmental, legislative, administrative and policy-advocacy sectors of democracies. The assessment leads on to a wide-ranging appraisal of the prospects for 'entrepreneurial' democracy in the twenty-first century.

With an unparalleled amount of empirical material, this is the most comprehensive introduction to comparative politics written by the leading experts in the field.