Groups that initiate dictatorship have different arrangements for organizing themselves, making decisions, and taking action, which we can observe before the dictatorship begins. After seizures of power, these differences shape the way decisions are made in the ensuing dictatorship and who can influence them. In the chapters that follow, we show that characteristics of the group that establishes the regime persist and shape political processes that follow. Our approach builds on several intuitions. First, we expect the inner circle of the dictatorship to be chosen from the seizure group. Second, we expect groups represented in the inner circles of dictatorships to dominate early decision making and to have more influence on decisions than excluded groups. Third, we expect organized included groups to wield more power than unorganized ones. Finally, we expect groups that have developed skills and routinized ways of interacting and making decisions to gravitate toward these same ways of doing things immediately after seizures of power. Our theories build on these intuitions.