Bailey with the seniors of PO404, in McGuinn 223.
ANATOMY OF DICTATORSHIP Taught by: Kathleen Bailey, adjunct associate professor of political science Prerequisites: None Class size: 14 Can there be a benign dictator? Do long-standing despots have strong social antennae that enable them to exploit a population? Do citizens have a responsibility to overthrow a dictatorship? In this seminar class, students majoring in political science, international studies, economics, and communication discussed tyrants ranging from Caligula and Hiero I (founder, in Syracuse, of Greece’s fi st secret police) to Stalin and Mugabe. They sought out what Bailey termed the “intersections” among despots—in their upbringings, their ascendancies, and their tactics for preserving control (including their grandiose trappings; Bailey began one class with a brief slideshow she called “best-dressed dictators”). For context, the class turned to critical readings including The Prince, The Politics of Authoritarian Rule (by Milan Svo-
lik, 2012), and Sultanistic Regimes (Houchang Chehabi and Juan Linz, eds., 1998). And they watched films The Great Dictator, The Devil’s Double, and The Last King of Scotland, among them), with Bailey supplying the background and mislaid facts and prodding the class with questions. During April, each student presented a 20-minute profi e of a dictator, based on a 25-page fi al research paper. These became the launch pad for animated conversations on topics such as the narcissism that infects the inner circles of dictatorial regimes; the role of regional kinships; the dynamics of succession. Following a presentation on Saddam Hussein by Sarah Hamma ’14, a student commented on the craving for “adulation as a reprieve from not knowing who is your friend” that seemed to drive many tyrants. Braeden Lord ’15, in a report on Stalin, noted by contrast the “sense of invincibility” that marked his rule. When Sydney Alabaster ’15 observed that the Soviet despot systematically “took trust out of the society,” Bailey paused, then asked, “Are there any redeeming qualities in his brutal discipline?” “Not really,” Alabaster replied, which brought a ripple of laughter, as more hands went up around the table.
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