Download This PaperRational Dictators and the Killing of Innocents: Data from Stalin's Archives
9 Pages Posted: 21 Dec 2019 Last revised: 1 Apr 2016
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Rational Dictators and the Killing of Innocents: Data from Stalin's Archives
Dictators, Repression and the Median Citizen: An 'Eliminations Model' of Stalin's Terror (Data from the NKVD Archives)
Date Written: November 1, 2006
Abstract
We posit a rational choice model of dictatorship to explain the tendency of dictators to repress innocent citizens. This model demonstrates that, when the quality of information about regime enemies is low, a rational dictator will knowingly kill and imprison citizens who are not real enemies. We use the formerly secret Stalin archives to test this proposition against the stylized facts of Stalin’s three major repressions.
Keywords: Dictatorial systems, Stalinism, Soviet State and Party archives, NKVD, OPGU
JEL Classification: P00, N44, P26
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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