onoira

… and how exactly will Trudeau's resignation help?

Can you please explain what you are basing this critique on?

reviews i've read, and my own bygone notes and experience with The Dictator's Handbook and The Logic of Political Survival. my critique is leveraged at both of them, because my memories of them are intertwined, and the former is based heavily on the latter.

The Logic of Political Survival is based in game theory (rational choice model), which falls apart when you consider that people don't/can't always process all information and don't/can't always minmax their choices. the supporting data for selectorate theory is biased; correcting for this bias heavily diminishes the findings.

on the theory's usefulness as a tool for analysis: Gallagher and Hanson wrote two papers ([1],[2]) about it. tl;dr: it's not a great predictor; it doesn't explain illiberal systems or peripheral politics; and it doesn't account for plurality.

What I find interesting in Selectorate Theory is that it links power and economics in a quantifiable way.

i can appreciate that; i also have a STEM background. if you're modelling a core liberal democracy, i think it does well enough. however, i think it's oversimplified, which is a common problem i find with quantified theories of social phenomena. it also probably falls apart if you want to predict the effects of a system reform/upheaval, or beyond.

that's why i refer to the philosophers and social scientists. their theories aren't calculus, but they provide the framework for understanding the origins and also what rough shape the outcome can take, without being too prescriptive.

I think that it’s a very useful tool that seems to be completely ignored in left/socialist circles.

it's probably ignored because there are many other theorists with more nuanced analyses of power: Marx, Gramsci, Marcuse, Foucault…

The Dictator's Handbook doesn't offer much in that regard. it assumes homo economicus and bases conclusions on flawed studies. selectorate theory has thus far failed as a tool for analysing — or making predictions about — states in the periphery.

i can relate to this. i can hear the electricity coursing thru the walls. lately it's been so loud that it keeps me up at night. no one else hears it, but i do.

i had to flip the breaker to the bedroom to quiet it down enough to sleep.

i would remove the tracker in your link (the ?si=).

if you're not sure yet if you might be an anarchist, consider Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!.

also seconding this great comment over in [email protected].

seconding a focus on sexology; we don't need another Institut für Sexualwissenschaft incident.

off the top of my head:

• The History of Sexuality (Michel Foucault 1976 – 84 + 2018)
• Transgender Warriors (Leslie Feinberg 1998)
• Gender Trouble (Judith Butler 1990)
• Undoing Gender (Judith Butler 2004)
• Caliban and the Witch (Silvia Federici 2004)
• Black on Both Sides (C. Riley Snorton 2017)
• The Stonewall Riots (Marc Stein 2019)

including all the works of Judith Butler and Silvia Federici.

more academically:

• Kinsey Reports; The Kinsey Institute: The First Seventy Years; and any other expansions on the work of the Kinsey Institute
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Healthcare: A Clinical Guide to Preventive, Primary, and Specialist Care (Kristen Eckstrand, Jesse M. Ehrenfeld 2016)

you can probably farm the bibilographies on these.

there's a bot that will do this for you over on lemmy.world. i think you'd like it better over there.

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