In NY Times: Snyder Analyzes Collapsing Dictatorships

August 28, 2011

What drives the remaining supporters of regimes in situations such as today’s Libya and Syria? “The regime’s supporters are not motivated by any real animating or guiding philosophy,” according to Institute Faculty Fellow Richard Snyder. “It is not like fundamentalist Islam or communism,” he said in a Reuters article published recently in the New York Times.

“People get goodies for being close to the ruler. That’s the essence of it,” he said.