There is an astonishing scene in the 1994 Russian film Burnt by the Sun. A giant celebratory hot-air balloon bearing a portrait of Stalin is released at the same time, in June 1936 during the great purges, that the Soviet secret police arrest a legendary Red Army hero and "old Bolshevik". This moment juxtaposes the two elements that sustained Stalin’s Russia: public worship and political terror. They lie at the core of Frank Dikotter’s impressive and authoritative new book. Dictatorships employ violence to seize power and eliminate opposition. But to entrench themselves and survive, they also need popular consent, created and sustained through personality cults.

In May and July of 2018, the citizens of Malaysia and Cambodia went to the polls. Both states were longtime autocracies. Malaysia had been run by essentially the same coalition since it gained independence. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had dominated the country for more than three decades.

When Americans talk about drug prices, the conversation is dominated by the eye-popping sticker prices of certain new drugs. We’re all aware of how sky-high prices can make it hard for some patients to afford the drugs they need. Yet few appreciate how patients also lose access to treatments when prices are too low.

Call me a crotchety old guy and you have a point, but I need to vent my angst over a new report from the NewSchools Venture Fund, authored by the very capable Stacey Childress and her colleagues. They’ve landed with many feet on the social and emotional learning (SEL) bandwagon. Indeed, their new “insight brief” proudly declares that “enthusiasm for social emotional learning has reached a fever pitch among policymakers and funders.”