The authors of this ambitious book address a fundamental political question: why are leaders who produce peace and prosperity turned out of office while those who preside over corruption, war, and misery endure? Considering this political puzzle, they also answer the related economic question of why some countries experience successful economic development and others do not.The authors construct a provocative theory on the selection of leaders and present specific formal models from which their central claims can be deduced. They show how political leaders allocate resources and how institutions for selecting leaders create incentives for leaders to pursue good and bad public policy. They also extend the model to explain the consequences of war on political survival. Throughout the book, they provide illustrations from history, ranging from ancient Sparta to Vichy France, and test the model against statistics gathered from cross-national data. The authors explain the political intuition underlying their theory in nontechnical language, reserving formal proofs for chapter appendixes. They conclude by presenting policy prescriptions based on what has been demonstrated theoretically and empirically.

1991年苏联的解体无疑是20世纪发生的最重大的事件之一。作者根据最近解密的老布什总统图书馆的绝密档案，包括总统顾问的备忘录和老布什与世界各国领导人的绝密电话记录，重新解读了那段纷繁复杂的历史。
本书挑战了关于冷战结束的传统观念，揭示了布什政府试图结束冷战、保全苏联作为其国际舞台上的重要伙伴的复杂游戏。
作者着眼于事件中心的四个人物—乔治·布什、米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫、鲍里斯·叶利钦、列昂尼德·克拉夫丘克—来讲述苏联最后五个月间发生的故事，这五个月改变了苏联的命运和世界的格局。本书作者会多国语言，能够查阅英语、俄语、波兰语、乌克兰语和白俄罗斯语的文献，这让他能够站在一个特殊的立场来呈现一个关于苏联解体的全新的、戏剧性的故事。

这部权威著作代表了作者毕生研究民主崩溃、民主转型与民主巩固所达到的顶峰，它在很多领域开辟了新的天地。作者重新概括了当代非民主政体的主要类型，并探讨了每种类型向民主转型的可行道路和民主巩固所要完成的任务。作者提出的对民主的巩固而言必需的五个场域——公民社会、政治社会、法治、官僚机构和经济社会——以及诸如“后全能主义”等更加宽广的分析范畴，将成为规范的分析框架，而他们对前共产主义世界的研究，也标志着苏联学开始回归主流比较政治学。
无可置疑，本书将成为有关建立民主政体的最重要文献。所有对民主感兴趣的人以及研究东欧、中欧和南美的学者都会怀着极大的兴趣来阅读本书。