Victor C. Shih's Coalitions of the Weak: Elite Politics in China from Mao's Stratagem to the Rise of Xi is a tour de force that is soon to be part of the canon in Chinese and autocratic politics. It argues that autocrats who are threatened by powerful elites build coalitions of the weak: a selectorate of individuals so inexperienced, undernetworked, or politically tainted that none can challenge the autocrat's rule. Rule by weak coalitions undermines institutionalism and policymaking but protects autocrats' hold on power, even into their twilight years. After the autocrat's demise, coalitions of the weak presage a period of political instability in which weak elites compete to fill a power vacuum. While the autocratic politics literature has extensively studied how institutions can stabilize authoritarian rule by distributing patronage and facilitating credible commitments, this book is one of only a few to study autocratic institutions in flux, in particular,...

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