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Alex Kvartalny @ flamedragon27.blogspot.com

Group 501

Born To Rule Rendering

The article is entitled Born to Rule. Neither the source, nor the date of the publication is knownNurture must play a part.

In some families the desire to go into politics is not prompted merely by a general interest in the subject; it may also be a matter of defending the family name.

If nurture is a useful start to a political career, so too is a well-known name.

A famous name, though, is not a certain passport to success, as the defeat of all but two of these (Jeb Bush and John Sununu) testifies. It is, however, a start.

And just as well, too, for machines are out of favour nowadays.

The habit of drafting a widow is an old one. Some 37 women have followed their deceased husbands into the House of Representatives, but all have got there by election.

More than a dozen husbands and wives have sat together in the British Par¬liament, and at least one father, David Lloyd George, has passed on the family baton to both a son and a daughter.

In the United States such tales are as old as the republic itself.

Similar stories occur in other countries: Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Benito, now sits in the Italian parliament;

Greasy pole, bloody ladder

In much of Asia dynastic politics takes the form of a male-to-female transfer, following the American pattern of widows stepping into their dead husband’s shoes. In Asia, though, a coup or an assassination or both, often serves to hurry the succession along.

Elsewhere daughters, not widows, have been the main beneficiaries of male politicians’ turbulent departures.

It is too soon to say how many of these Asian successions mark the beginnings of real political dynasties: some of the characters are related only by marriage, not blood, and only the Gandhis have spanned more than two generations.

The idea is not inherently absurd. Dynasties can be found in plenty of professions,

Not all Galton’s views have stood the test of time. His assertion that “social hindrances cannot impede men of high ability” seems absurd today, and the logic of his general argument led him to thoughts on eugenics that few would now endorse: the state, he suggested, should issue parents with breeding quotas based on their ability, allowing more children for the talented, fewer for dullards.

Personality and beliefs are not quite the same as acumen and effectiveness, but, hereditary or not, they must still be counted significant components of a politician’s make-up. In politics, it seems, as in so many other human activities, nurture and nature both play a part. Or, to put it another way, no one should be surprised that the lower forms of pond life owe their position to a gene pool.

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