OK, Godfather jokes are cliches but seem apt here. For some reason when people think of "family business" they think of that particular family. Be that as it may This is a book that tells of Nepotism in history and it's effects.
It must be understood that the author has a pretty wide definition of Nepotism. What most people think of, is the misuse of an office to gain privileges for family and friends by corrupt means. The author extends that to any kind of family traditionalism. And says there are good effects as well as bad effects. I can see his point. I have never quite felt the contempt for or indignation at "rich kids" that some have felt for it always seemed a little like blaming people for their ancestry. And I have never felt particularly horrified by the occasional dynastic politician. It seemed to me to kind of humanize politics, and as the alternative would be to have politicians who wanted power or thought they were "what the country needed" perhaps a politician who is running because daddy wants him to isn't so bad as long as he has no institutionalized advantage from it.
As the author points out, a strict meritocracy, should such an impossibility exist, has the danger of creating a ruling class that feels over independent and has little sense of responsibility(this can be corrected, by the way, by instilling esprit de corps in a given meritocracy but perhaps that cannot be institutionalized until it reaches into the family structure in a manner similar to Roman families or Jane Austen style naval families).
The book doesn't just cover government families which is what we would think of, but a wide range of traditional family occupations including, perhaps inevitably, the Mafia. It shows how "Nepotism" rightly understood can produce a drive to succeed just as wrongly understood it can produce corruption.
As is common in such books I liked the historical interest more then "the message"
It's basic point of course is that "nepotism"(as the author defines it) is part of human nature, and it might be better for a society to take advantage of it then to try to destroy it. He does have a point. Maybe it is not just business but it really is personal.
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Top reviews from other countries
Douglas Yates
survey of literature on dynasties
Reviewed in France on January 16, 2018
