Like the postcolonial world more generally, Southeast Asia exhibits tremendous variation in state capacity and authoritarian durability. Ordering Power draws on theoretical insights dating back to Thomas Hobbes to develop a unified framework for explaining both of these political outcomes. States are especially strong and dictatorships especially durable when they have their origins in 'protection pacts': broad elite coalitions unified by shared support for heightened state power and tightened authoritarian controls as bulwarks against especially threatening and challenging types of contentious politics. These coalitions provide the elite collective action underpinning strong states, robust ruling parties, cohesive militaries, and durable authoritarian regimes - all at the same time. Comparative-historical analysis of seven Southeast Asian countries (Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Vietnam, and Thailand) reveals that subtly divergent patterns of contentious politics after World War II provide the best explanation for the dramatic divergence in Southeast Asia's contemporary states and regimes.

Canonical theories of political economy struggle to explain patterns of distribution in authoritarian regimes. In this Element, Albertus, Fenner, and Slater challenge existing models and introduce an alternative, supply-side, and state-centered theory of 'coercive distribution'. Authoritarian regimes proactively deploy distributive policies as advantageous strategies to consolidate their monopoly on power. These policies contribute to authoritarian durability by undercutting rival elites and enmeshing the masses in lasting relations of coercive dependence. The authors illustrate the patterns, timing, and breadth of coercive distribution with global and Latin American quantitative evidence and with a series of historical case studies from regimes in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. By recognizing distribution's coercive dimensions, they account for empirical patterns of distribution that do not fit with quasi-democratic understandings of distribution as quid pro quo exchange. Under authoritarian conditions, distribution is less an alternative to coercion than one of its most effective expressions.

中文书名：《计算机时代的爱情》
英文书名：Love in the Time of Algorithms
作 者：Dan Slater
代理公司：ANA
出版时间：2013年1月
代理地区：中国大陆、台湾
类 型：大众社科
版权已授：西班牙、英国、德国
本书从《大西洋月刊》（The Atlantic）摘录发行，引起巨大反响。
“网上约会”始于1965年的哈佛，从那以后网上约会产业为着全美三分之一，大约8千万的单身人士服务。这个现象原来被当做寂寞和绝望的归宿，但如今却被人们所接受。
丹·斯莱特（Dan Slater）为我们讲述了网上约会是如何推动一轮新的性革命。这要归功于网络的高效性，那些情投意合的伴侣不再仅属于小型的群体。高效性和控制性改变了人们对私人生活可能性的看法，也让我们重新感受稳定性和承诺。
斯莱特在他的书中将历史、心理学以及对网站建设者及使用者的采访结合起来，把读者带进了这个令人称奇产业的幕后世界。相亲网站利用的正是人们对爱的渴求和向往。但是您想不想知道这些网站的建设者对搭建这个虚拟世界的利润、有限性和欲望的本质是如何看待的呢？以及他们如何理解人们的线下情缘？
媒体评价：
“本书从哈佛有趣但别扭的网上约会开始，逐渐走向专业，到今天在迈阿密的时髦派对，斯莱特专业并娴熟地带领我们经历了我们这个时代最大的求爱变革（与之前六七十年代简·奥斯汀似的恋爱方式相比）。作者以独到的探究手法显示了科技也许重新塑造了人类存在最重要的一面：爱情。”
----万妮莎·格里奥迪亚斯（VANESSA GRIGORIADIS），《纽约杂志》（New York Magazine）编辑
“五种关系中的一种如今始于电脑屏幕前。但是我们是如何到达这里的？丹·斯莱特（Dan Slater）带我们窥探了这些相亲主管们的独特思维，这些人建立了这个产业，与此同时这些人的生活因为相亲革命而发生永久性的改变。作为这些管理者的其中一位，我想我知道这个故事。但是斯莱特带着幽默和新鲜的视角将改变你对数字世界里爱情的看法。”
----山姆·亚甘（SAM YAGAN），OkCupid创建者及执行总裁
“这是一本详细介绍了计算机科学和创业者努力解决人们生活中最长期存在的挑战之一：找到合适的人生伴侣的优秀读物。书里既没有诋毁也没有赞扬网上相亲这种作为，斯莱特的清楚地表明寻找伴侣的方式如今已经永久性地改变了，无论你喜不喜欢，我们可能无法回头。”
----蒂姆·吴（TIM WU），《信息帝国的兴衰》（The Master Switch）作者
“《计算机时代的爱情》（Love in the Time of Algorithms）贯穿了整个网上相亲的世界，非常精彩。本书充满了人们如何习惯（或者不习惯）网络爱情的轶事，但是与此同时斯莱特同样提出了一个大问题：科学能够预测爱情吗？以及相亲网站上那一摞摞的相亲对象对于未来的人类关系又意味着什么？”
----本瑟尼·麦克林（BETHANY McLEAN），《最聪明的人》（The Smartest Guys in the Room）作者
“同如今大量充斥在数字世界的其他商品一样，爱情也开始蜂拥而来。但是，正如斯莱特娴熟又风趣地向我们指出，把爱情拿到算术法则当中去改变的将不仅是我们最终跟谁走在了一起，更是我们如何看待伴侣、关系、人类意志甚至命运。”
----道格拉斯·洛西科夫（DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF），《生命公司》（Life Inc.）及《当今震惊》（Present Shock）作者
“网络会为我们带来网上相亲以及使科技在我们的爱情生活中蔓延吗？！这本书对我们所在的这个科技-爱情的世界进行艺术性的检验，丹·斯莱特（Dan Slater）为我们打开视野，介绍了永久改变我们行为以及渴望的方式。”
----杰西卡·马萨（JESSICA MASSA）及瑞贝卡·魏根特（REBECCA WIEGAND），“The Gaggle & WTF Is Up With My Love Life?!”共同创立者
中文简体版权代理：
安德鲁•纳伯格联合国际有限公司北京代表处
电子邮箱：[email protected]
网址：http://www.nurnberg.com.cn
新浪微博：http://weibo.com/nurnberg
豆瓣小站：http://site.douban.com/110577/

Why some of Asia’s authoritarian regimes have democratized as they have grown richer—and why others haven’t

Over the past century, Asia has been transformed by rapid economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization—a spectacular record of development that has turned one of the world’s poorest regions into one of its richest. Yet Asia’s record of democratization has been much more uneven, despite the global correlation between development and democracy. Why have some Asian countries become more democratic as they have grown richer, while others—most notably China—haven’t? In From Development to Democracy, Dan Slater and Joseph Wong offer a sweeping and original answer to this crucial question.

Slater and Wong demonstrate that Asia defies the conventional expectation that authoritarian regimes concede democratization only as a last resort, during times of weakness. Instead, Asian dictators have pursued democratic reforms as a proactive strategy to revitalize their power from a position of strength. Of central importance is whether authoritarians are confident of victory and stability. In Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan these factors fostered democracy through strength, while democratic experiments in Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar were less successful and more reversible. At the same time, resistance to democratic reforms has proven intractable in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Reconsidering China’s 1989 crackdown, Slater and Wong argue that it was the action of a regime too weak to concede, not too strong to fail, and they explain why China can allow democracy without inviting instability.

The result is a comprehensive regional history that offers important new insights about when and how democratic transitions happen—and what the future of Asia might be.