It was remarkable even for Thailand, where dynasties are nothing new.
The country’s parliament this month voted to appoint 37-year-old Paetongtarn Shinawatra as prime minister.
She’s the youngest ever leader.
Ms Paetongtarn happens to be the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra — a billionaire and giant of Thai politics who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006.
She is also the niece of Mr Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who served as prime minister from 2011 to 2014, and his brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawa, who was prime minister briefly in 2008.
The divisive Shinawatra family have been at the centre of Thai politics for decades. (Reuters: Panumas Sanguanwong)
Nepotistic politics may be commonplace in South-East Asia, but new research shows it is prevalent globally — and even more common in democracies than under authoritarian systems.
As it turns out, they are everywhere in democracies around the world.
James Loxton, a comparative politics researcher at the University of Sydney, analysed heads of government who were children, spouses or siblings of former heads of government in places with sustained democratic periods between 1945 and 2010.
“This is something you find in the oldest democracies and in the youngest democracies, in the richest countries and the poorest countries,” he told the ABC.
“Basically wherever elections are held, dynasties emerge.”
Dr Loxton’s study, published in the Journal of Democracy this month, revealed that 36 out of 89 countries — some 40 per cent — had leaders that fit this profile.
There are many “nepo baby” national leaders, but it’s even more common at the local and regional level. (Reuters)
The 43rd president of the United States, George W Bush, served after his father George HW Bush, who was the 41st president.
Canada’s current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is the son of Pierre Trudeau, who was prime minister in the 1980s.
“The Trudeaus of the world are more numerous than the Assads,” according to Dr Loxton, referring to the political family who have ruled Syria with an iron fist since the 1970s.
“Excluding absolute monarchs, there are currently more democratically-elected heads of government whose fathers were heads of government before them than autocratic heads of government for which the same is true.”
Will the Trumps be America’s next political dynasty?
Hereditary democracy and women leaders
What Dr Loxton calls “hereditary democracy” has given many countries, particularly in Asia, their first women leaders including Ms Yingluck in Thailand.
“Throughout Asia, the female relatives of important male relatives have been elected to high office,” Dr Loxton said.
“Sri Lanka actually had the first woman prime minister in the world in 1960. She was democratically elected.”
Sirimavo Bandaranaike took office following the murder of her husband, the previous prime minister, Solomon Bandaranaike.
Dr Loxton pointed out that Switzerland didn’t even allow women to vote until 1971.
India was next with a female leader, as its third prime minister Indira Gandhi took office in 1966.
She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, who along with Mahatma Gandhi brought the independent nation of India into existence.
“In India, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty provided the country with its prime ministers for all but four of its first 42 years of independence,” Dr Loxton said.
In neighbouring Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto came to power in 1988.
She followed in her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s footsteps by serving as the country’s prime minister not once, but twice.
The Trudeau, Bush, Sukarno and Shinawatra families are among the many dynasties that have emerged in democratic settings. (ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)
Bangladesh got its first female prime minister in 1991, Khaleda Zia, who was the widow of assassinated former prime minister Ziaur Rahman.
Sheikh Hasina, democratically elected but authoritarian-leaning, was prime minister of Bangladesh for 15 years before she fled the country earlier this month in the face of mass anti-government protests.
Ms Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who served as both prime minister and president, is considered the “father of the nation” by many Bangladeshis.
“After the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina’s government, there is a sense that a brighter future may be dawning in Bangladesh, especially for its women,” Australian Catholic University researcher Farjana Mahbuba wrote recently for the ABC .
“These protests have seen the emergence of a new generation of female leaders.”
In Indonesia, meanwhile, Megawati Sukarnoputri, became the Muslim-majority country’s president in 2001.
She is the daughter of Indonesian founding father Sukarno and as chair of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, remains one of the most powerful figures in Indonesian politics.
Her daughter, Puan Maharani, is speaker of the Indonesian lower house.
Nepotism ‘fundamentally unfair’ to voters
Dr Loxton said while hereditary democracy had afforded opportunities to female leaders, it was “fundamentally unfair” and ultimately degraded the quality of democracy.
Australia has had its fair share of nepotism in politics. (AAP: Darren Pateman)
“It really violates one of the things that democracy is supposed to do,” Dr Loxton said, regarding its role as a “sorting mechanism” to bring the best and brightest to power.
“There are multiple countries in the world where the entire political system just revolves around competing cliques.”
Dr Loxton said that at the state and local level, hereditary democracy was even more common — including in Australia.
The former Liberal premier of New South Wales, Mike Baird, is the son of former MP Bruce Baird.
Labor politician Kim Beazley, who served as deputy prime minister, is the son of Whitlam government minister Kim Beazley Sr.
And the phenomenon of political “nepo babies” continues worldwide.
In Indonesia’s February election, outgoing president Joko Widodo’s son Gibran Rakanuming Raka was elected vice-president .
Why do political dynasties persist in Indonesia?
“Would we agree to open-heart surgery from the son of a famous surgeon if that son had never even been to medical school?” Dr Loxton said.
“The assumption of a lot of voters is that if someone is related either by blood or marriage to a politician that they really like, well naturally that person is just going to be very similar.
“Is that assumption actually always borne out by the facts? No, I don’t think it is.”
ABC
