Coordination in Political Machinery Under Dictatorship: Signals, Shirking, and Repression
21 Pages Posted: 18 May 2012
Date Written: May 18, 2012
Abstract
This paper is devoted to the explanation of selected bureaus’ behavior patterns in the soviet type of totalitarian dictatorships with the command economic model. It is a proven fact that the plan figures in the soviet economy were fabricated as a consequence of intrigues and secret negotiations between different interested parties. Generally, bureaus, as rational agents that minimize risk and maximize slack, should have been interested in reducing the plan figures, nevertheless, they strived to increase them. As examples, mass repression under dictatorships and overexpenditure of an administrative leverage at elections in non-democratic and quasi-democratic countries can be observed. In the article we develop a simple model of coordination between principal (dictator) and his agents (bureaus), which explain the mentioned paradoxical situation.
Keywords: Dictatorship, Stalinism, Repression, Plan, Coordination problem
JEL Classification: P00, P26, N44, D73
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation