Dynasty - Political Families in Republics

Political Families in Republics

Though in elected governments rule does not pass automatically by inheritance, political power often accrues to generations of related individuals in republics. Eminence, influence, tradition, genetics, and nepotism may contribute to this phenomenon.

Family dictatorships are a different concept, in which political power passes within a family due to the overwhelming authority of the leader, rather than informal power accrued to the family.

Some political dynasties:

  • The Beazley and Crean families (Australian Labor Party)
  • Ziaur Rahman's and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's families (Bangladesh)
  • Aung San Suu Kyi's family (Burma)
  • The Nehru-Gandhi family (India)
  • The Soekarnos (Indonesia)
  • The Bhutto family (Pakistan)
  • The Zia family (Pakistan)
  • The Macapagal Family (Philippines)
  • The Aquino Family(Philippines)
  • The Estrada Family (Philippines)
  • The Marcos Family (Philippines)
  • The Medici family (Republic of Florence)
  • Lee Kuan Yew's family (Singapore)
  • Solomon Bandaranaike's family (Sri Lanka)
  • The Churchills/Dukes of Marlborough (UK)
  • The Adamses (United States)
  • The Kennedys (United States)
  • The Bushes (United States)
  • The Long family (United States)
  • The Roosevelts (United States)
  • The Tafts (United States)
  • The Cuomo family (United States)
  • The Udalls (United States)

Read more about this topic:  Dynasty

Famous quotes containing the words political, families and/or republics:

    “Whether you want it or not,
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    your skin a political tone.
    your eyes a political color.
    ...
    you walk with political steps
    on political ground.”
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    “Many older wealthy families have learned to instill a sense of public service in their offspring. But newly affluent middle-class parents have not acquired this skill. We are using our children as symbols of leisure-class standing without building in safeguards against an overweening sense of entitlement—a sense of entitlement that may incline some young people more toward the good life than toward the hard work that, for most of us, makes the good life possible.”
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    “Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions. A Republic is a government in which that attention is divided between many, who are all doing uninteresting actions. Accordingly, so long as the human heart is strong and the human reason weak, Royalty will be strong because it appeals to diffused feeling, and Republics weak because they appeal to the understanding.”
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