Negotiation is the art of getting an opponent to advocate for your position. You want one thousand dollars for an old car. You ask for two. The buyer works you down to one, and you shake on the “deal.”

Parents employ similar skills. A toddler who is unhappy about being put in the stroller might be given a choice: we can either go to the park or take a nap. Cries often disappear when the alternative to play is less fun. Of course, children quickly learn this game, too. Some will double-down on crying until mom throws up her hands and offers to renegotiate: and we can stop for ice cream on the way! Teenagers realize that either-or offers invite workarounds. “Do your homework or you’re grounded” succeeds as a negotiating position only if Junior can’t climb out the window after dark.

From an early age, we grasp that successful negotiations take advantage of (1) asymmetric information and (2) asymmetric authority. Individuals who know more than their opponents and who are capable of restricting the range of available outcomes to any dispute are likely to get what they want.

Governments use such asymmetries to maintain control. By knowing more than the public and by exercising complete authority over what is permissible, their bargaining power far exceeds that of the lowly citizen. In the United States, the Department of Justice maintains an almost perfect conviction rate. Is that because prosecutors pursue only the guilty? Or is it because lone defendants are up against federal law enforcement agencies with huge bureaucratic workforces and immense investigatory resources? When the “United States of America” is a party to any case, the underdog sits on the other side.

Governments also relish playing parent. Before their deaths, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, and Hugo Chávez embraced the role of father to their respective nations. Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping assume that role today. Even in so-called “democratic” countries, it is common to treat the heads of government as family patriarchs (or the matriarch, as was the case with the........

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