dictator wedded to violence, raw violence and raw fear, but as a more sophisticated operator, who wants to use some of the trappings of a democrat to enforce his authority. in a way, that was a charitable view of putin, and i wonder if you now feel that you got vladimir putin wrong? well, as i said, things change. and, indeed, in our book, spin dictators, we, with daniel triesman, show that most of current dictators, most of 21st century dictators are indeed dictators who pretend to be democrats and rely on deception, on manipulation of information, on spin, rather than on terror, fear and mass repression. but you re right that mr putin is changing, and when we finished the manuscript it was a year ago, the bookjust came out, but we finished the manuscript last may we wrote that there is a sign that mr putin s regime is changing, is travelling back in time from spin dictatorship to a dictatorship based on fear.
in a way, that was a charitable view of putin, and i wonder if you now feel that you got vladimir putin wrong? well, as i said, things change. and, indeed, in our book spin dictators, we, with daniel triesman, show that most of current dictators, most of 21st century dictators are indeed dictators who pretend to be democrats and rely on deception, on manipulation of information, on spin, rather than on terror, fear and mass repression. but you re right that mr putin is changing, and when we finished the manuscript it was a year ago, the bookjust came out, but we finished the manuscript last may we wrote that there is a sign that mr putin s regime is changing, is travelling back in time from spin dictatorship to a dictatorship based on fear. this is not uncommon. this happens. and in the book, we describe the example of venezuela, where mr chavez was the spin dictator, while his successor,
to argue that putin should be seen not as an old style dictator wedded to violence, raw violence and raw fear, but as a more sophisticated operator, who wants to use some of the trappings of a democrat to enforce his authority. in a way, that was a charitable view of putin, and i wonder if you now feel that you got vladimir putin wrong? well, as i said, things change. and, indeed, in our book spin dictators, we, with daniel triesman, show that most of current dictators, most of 21st century dictators are indeed dictators who pretend to be democrats and rely on deception, on manipulation of information, on spin, rather than on terror, fear and mass repression. but you re right that mr putin is changing, and when we finished the manuscript it was a year ago, the bookjust came out, but we finished the manuscript last may we wrote that there is a sign that mr putin s regime is changing, is travelling back in time from spin dictatorship to