UCLA political scientist Daniel Treisman joins the Young Initiative to discuss how today's autocrats hold power less through fear and mass violence than through manipulated information and manufactured competence.
Location:
Choi Auditorium (Johnson Hall 200)
Event Date: Oct. 29, 2026
Price:
Free
Thursday, October 29, 2026 | 12:00–1:15 p.m.
Choi Auditorium, Johnson Hall 200
The John Parke Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy welcomes Daniel Treisman, Professor of Political Science at UCLA, as part of its Fall 2026 Speaker Series.
With economist Sergei Guriev, Treisman is the co-author of Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century (Princeton University Press, 2022). Their argument: many modern authoritarian rulers no longer govern primarily through mass repression. Instead they manipulate information, manufacture an image of competence, and mimic democratic institutions — a model of rule that has reshaped politics from Russia to Hungary to Singapore. The talk will explore how "spin dictatorship" works, where it is vulnerable, and what it means for democracies.
Free and open to the Occidental community.
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