Ignazio Silone
Ignazio Silone

Author: Maria Nicolai Paynter

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9780802007056

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Throughout his life, the internationally known novelist, short story writer, and journalist, Ignazio Silone (1900-1978) struggled indomitably for social justice. In this book, Maria Nicolai Paynter discusses the many controversial issues surrounding Silone and his writing, analysing in detail his intellectual and political convictions and assesses the artistic achievement and stylistic development in his works. Paynter argues that a profound authenticity is at the core of Silone's writing and that his tragic vision emanates from a concepte of heroism based not on pride and self-serving defiance but rather on moral courage and integrity. Northrop Frye's archetypal criticism and his concept of ironic myth provide the theoretical framework through which Paynter guides the reader to an understanding of Silone's particular brand of realism and his unique message. Ignazio Silone: Beyond the Tragic Visionis a new, expanded version in English of an earlier Italian-language book which won the Premio Internazionale Letterario Ignazio Silone. It is the first comprehensive book in English on Silone's life, his writings, and their critical reception.

The Dictator's Learning Curve
The Dictator's Learning Curve

Author: William J. Dobson

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2013-03-12

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 030747755X

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In this riveting anatomy of authoritarianism, acclaimed journalist William Dobson takes us inside the battle between dictators and those who would challenge their rule. Recent history has seen an incredible moment in the war between dictators and democracy—with waves of protests sweeping Syria and Yemen, and despots falling in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. But the Arab Spring is only the latest front in a global battle between freedom and repression, a battle that, until recently, dictators have been winning hands-down. The problem is that today’s authoritarians are not like the frozen-in-time, ready-to-crack regimes of Burma and North Korea. They are ever-morphing, technologically savvy, and internationally connected, and have replaced more brutal forms of intimidation with subtle coercion. The Dictator’s Learning Curve explains this historic moment and provides crucial insight into the fight for democracy.

Caudillos
Caudillos

Author: Hugh M. Hamill

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 1992-01-01

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780806124285

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In this major revision of the Borzoi Book Dictatorship in Spanish America, editor Hugh Hamill has presented conflicting interpretations of caudillismo in twenty-seven essays written by an international group of historians, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, journalists, and caudillos themselves. The selections represent revisionists, apologists, enemies, and even a victim of caudillos. The personalities discussed include the Mexican priest Miguel Hidalgo, the Argentinian gaucho Facundo Quiroga, the Guatemalan Rafael Carrera, the Colombian Rafael Núñez, Mexico’s Porfirio Díaz, the Somoza family of Nicaragua, the Dominican "Benefactor" Rafael Trujillo, the Argentinians Juan Perón and his wife Evita, Paraguay’s Alfredo Stroessner - called "The Tyrannosaur," Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, and Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

The Specter of Dictatorship
The Specter of Dictatorship

Author: David M. Driesen

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2021-07-20

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1503628620

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Reveals how the U.S. Supreme Court's presidentialism threatens our democracy and what to do about it. Donald Trump's presidency made many Americans wonder whether our system of checks and balances would prove robust enough to withstand an onslaught from a despotic chief executive. In The Specter of Dictatorship, David Driesen analyzes the chief executive's role in the democratic decline of Hungary, Poland, and Turkey and argues that an insufficiently constrained presidency is one of the most important systemic threats to democracy. Driesen urges the U.S. to learn from the mistakes of these failing democracies. Their experiences suggest, Driesen shows, that the Court must eschew its reliance on and expansion of the "unitary executive theory" recently endorsed by the Court and apply a less deferential approach to presidential authority, invoked to protect national security and combat emergencies, than it has in recent years. Ultimately, Driesen argues that concern about loss of democracy should play a major role in the Court's jurisprudence, because loss of democracy can prove irreversible. As autocracy spreads throughout the world, maintaining our democracy has become an urgent matter.

Spin Dictators
Spin Dictators

Author: Daniel Treisman

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2023-04-04

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0691224471

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How a new breed of dictators holds power by manipulating information and faking democracy 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 Orbán control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin the 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. Spin Dictators traces how leaders such as Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori pioneered less violent, more covert, and more effective methods of monopolizing power. They cultivated an image of competence, concealed censorship, and used democratic institutions to undermine democracy, all while increasing international engagement for financial and reputational benefits. The book reveals why most of today’s authoritarians are spin dictators—and how they differ from the remaining “fear dictators” such as Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad, as well as from masters of high-tech repression like Xi Jinping. Offering incisive portraits of today’s authoritarian leaders, Spin Dictators explains some of the great political puzzles of our time—from how dictators can survive in an age of growing modernity to the disturbing convergence and mutual sympathy between dictators and populists like Donald Trump.

Children of the Dictatorship
Children of the Dictatorship

Author: Kostis Kornetis

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2013-11-01

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 1782380019

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Putting Greece back on the cultural and political map of the “Long 1960s,” this book traces the dissent and activism of anti-regime students during the dictatorship of the Colonels (1967-74). It explores the cultural as well as ideological protest of Greek student activists, illustrating how these “children of the dictatorship” managed to re-appropriate indigenous folk tradition for their “progressive” purposes and how their transnational exchange molded a particular local protest culture. It examines how the students’ social and political practices became a major source of pressure on the Colonels’ regime, finding its apogee in the three day Polytechnic uprising of November 1973 which laid the foundations for a total reshaping of Greek political culture in the following decades.