The Dictator's Handbook and the politics of technical competence

> Leaders prefer small coalitions, because small coalitions are cheaper to keep happy.

and

> Mesquita and Smith barely write about competence at all. From what I can tell, they assume that leaders don’t care about it...

are somewhat interesting in conjunction* with:

> Having dismantled much of the ... policy infrastructure since he came to power, [he] depends on a small number of trusted personnel and business associates to handle core issues

And then, from a different summary:

> Ideally, you will also be able to capture the former dictator and retrieve some of his war chests.

( ' -')?

* https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/01/04/...