Please join the Freeman Chair in China Studies for a discussion with Dr. Timothy R. Heath about his new book, The Autocrat’s Predicament: The Political Peril of Economic Upgrade in Single Party, Authoritarian Regimes (Lexington Books, 2023). Heath is a senior international defense researcher at the RAND Corporation and previously spent more than fifteen years in the U.S. government researching and analyzing military and political topics related to China.

In The Autocrat’s Predicament, Heath explores the disappointing economic record of authoritarian regimes and identifies why some have succeeded where most did not. Heath highlights the pivotal role political conditions play in economic outcomes.  Drawing on episodes in the histories of the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, and the Soviet Union, he argues that states with strong central leadership, weak elite opposition, and a united public are better placed to enact concentrated growth policies.

This event was made possible through general support to CSIS.