How Tyrants Fall

Strongmen are on the rise and democracies are under strain, so the question of how tyranny actually ends matters. Political scientist Marcel Dirsus starts from the view that every tyrant eventually falls, however invincible he appears. Each faces weaknesses that can combine into a fatal trap: an inner circle that turns on him, resentful elites in the military, masses alienated by cronyism, or revolutionaries plotting from exile. Tyrants tend to have more enemies than friends, and when they fall they rarely retire quietly. They face exile, prison or death, and what follows can decide the fate of a nation.

Dirsus builds the book on interviews with coup leaders, dissidents and soldiers, using them to examine how tyrannies work and how they break down. Among those we hear from are a revolutionary with the codename Satan, who risked capture by the Stasi while working to undermine an oppressive regime, and an unapologetic former leader of a Burundian rebel group responsible for a massacre. Another is an American-Gambian activist who planned the liberation of his homeland during breaks from his construction job.

The book goes beyond explaining dictators. It sets out to show, from careful research, how they can be brought down.