The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics by Bruce Bueno De Mesquita; Alastair Smith

Author:Bruce Bueno De Mesquita; Alastair Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 161039044X
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2011-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

Cautionary Tales: Never Take the Coalition for Granted

Whistle-blowing is not the only way to get in trouble. Leaders can put themselves at dire risk if they take their coalition’s loyalty for granted. The rules governing rulers teach us that leaders should never underpay their coalition whether they do so to reward themselves or the common people. Those who want to enrich themselves must do so out of discretionary funds, not coalition money. Those who want to make the people’s lives better likewise should only do so with money out of their own pockets and not at the expense of the coalition. Leaders sometimes miscalculate what is needed to keep the coalition happy. When they make this mistake it costs them their leadership role and, very often, their life. The stories of crime boss “Big” Paul Castellano and Roman emperor Julius Caesar are cautionary tales for any who would make the mistake of not giving the coalition its due.

“Big” Paul Castellano, who inherited control of the Gambino crime family in 1976, made just such a mistake. He shifted the focus of the family business to racketeering and shaking down the construction industry. Indeed it was said that no concrete could be poured on projects worth over $2 million in New York City without the mafia’s permission. That would have been fine for his crime family if the wealth from these new activities flowed to its members, or if he continued to pay sufficient attention to their traditional revenue sources. Instead, he neglected the traditional businesses, like extortion, loan sharking, and prostitution that were the source of income for his coalition of mafiosi. When a moment of opportunity presented itself, triggered by the death of a key supporter, Aniello “Neil” Dellacroce, and the pressures from the ongoing Mafia Commission Trial prosecuted by Rudy Giuliani, Castellano’s erstwhile backers turned on him. John “the Dapper Don” Gotti, Frank DeCicco, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, and other captains worked together to gun down Castellano outside of Sparks Steak House on Forty-sixth Street in New York.13

Castellano rewarded himself at the expense of his supporters and it cost him his life. A few thousand years earlier, Julius Caesar’s mistake was to help the people at the expense of his backers and this too cost him his life. Julius Caesar’s death at the hands of some of his closest supporters is often portrayed as the slaying of a despot. But the facts don’t support this interpretation.

Julius Caesar was a reformer. He undertook important public works, from redoing the calendar and relieving traffic congestion, to stabilizing food availability. He also took steps specifically designed to help the poor. For instance, he provided land grants to former soldiers and got rid of the system of tax farming, replacing it with a more orderly and predictable tax system. Not only that, he relieved the people’s debt burden by about 25 percent.

Not surprisingly, though these policies were popular with the people, many came at the expense of Rome’s prominent citizens. Tax farming was, of course, lucrative for those lucky few who got to extract money from the people.

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