Marcel Dirsus is fascinated by the treadmill of tyranny: how dictators gain power, how they stay there and how they fall. This is his blueprint for bringing an end to authoritarianism.

With democracies seemingly faltering worldwide, political scientist and writer Marcel Dirsus is putting tyrants under the microscope to better understand how they rise and how they fall.

Years ago, Marcel took a break from his university studies and travelled to central Africa, where he took a job in a brewery.

One day, while walking to work, he heard shots fired and an explosion in the distance as the military was launching a coup.

The experience terrified him, and drew him into a study of tyrants — the dictators and despots who make life miserable for so many people on the planet.

While they project an image of strength, guarded on all sides, and surrounded by people who do their bidding, Marcel says they live in fear.

For the road to power is often flanked by the road to revolution.

These men know a mass uprising, an assassination, a mutiny or a foreign invasion could end their reign at any moment, and who, or what will take their place?

In investigating the long history of tyrannical leaders, however, Marcel has found a renewed optimism for Western Democracy.

How Tyrants Fall: And How Nations Survive is published by Hachette Australia.

Marcel is appearing at the Sydney Writers' Festival on Friday 23 May.

This episode of Conversations explores Putin, Xi Jinping, China, CCP, Russia, Trump, global politics, dictatorships, democracy, voting rights, election results, the new world order, Stalin, Hitler, famous leaders, Churchill, politics, books, writing, history, war, civil war, Africa, USSR, Elon Musk, Gaddafi, golden gun, torture, Libya, Syria, control, Machiavelli, monarchs, Al-Ghazali, East Germany, Congo, academia, what to study at university, coup, the elite, power systems, Cold War, Bashar al-Assad, Ukraine, surveillance, Roman Empire.