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Try to Rule Fairly and You'll Be Overthrown

CGP Grey · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Politics & history (other)World historyManagement, leadership & organizations

What it is

CGP Grey's animated adaptation of The Dictator's Handbook, explaining how rulers stay in power by keeping a small group of key supporters happy rather than ruling fairly. It lays out selectorate theory and how resources shape regimes.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN treats it as the standard short summary of how power and political incentives work, applied to governments, companies and workplaces.

  • 15 people recommended it
  • 15 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2016, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “here's a great video, Rules for Rulers, which is basically a video TL;DR of "The Dictator's Handbook”

    Video summary of The Dictator's Handbook on ruler incentives

    VladimirGolovin, 2016-12 · Strong recommendation · in “Russia’s Creepy, Innovative Internet [video]”

  2. “CGPGrey's rules for rulers is a very good outline of this and other related topics”

    Outline of how rulers and resource wealth interact

    abandonliberty, 2018-07 · Strong recommendation · in “A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line”

  3. “CGP Grey's excellent Rules for Rulers video”

    Excellent explainer on how rulers keep power

    mtgx, 2018-09 · Strong recommendation · in “Former Columnist Jailed for Facebook Criticism of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi”

  4. “An excellent primer on modes of Government, how they arise, and how this perpetuate is this CGP Grey video”

    Primer on modes of government and how they persist

    fredley, 2019-11 · Strong recommendation · in “You can fool some of the people, all of the time”

  5. “Or this nice little video”

    Short intro to selectorate theory and dictator stability

    nickik, 2017-06 · Recommendation · in “Venture investors blast US decision to withdraw from Paris Climate Accord”

  6. “watch the CGP Grey video Rules for Rulers[1] for a good summary”

    Good summary of The Dictator's Handbook

    afarrell, 2018-12 · Recommendation · in “An Estonian company developing unmanned weaponized ground vehicles”

  7. “summarized well by CGP Grey's video "The Rules for Rulers”

    Summarizes The Dictator's Handbook on resource-driven regimes

    derefr, 2020-07 · Recommendation · in “With oil cheap, Arab states cannot balance their books”

  8. “You would probably enjoy CGP Grey's video Rules for Rulers”

    Why politicians don't enact good legislation

    rrsmtz, 2021-03 · Recommendation · in “Legislative Performance Futures – Incentivize Good Laws by Monetizing the Future”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: rules for rulers, dictators handbook, selectorate theory, political science, cgp grey

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