User:Brickie/Sandbox/Nepotism

Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives or friends, without regard to their merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos (meaning "nephew" or "grandchild").

Papal
Nepotism gained its name after the church practice in the Middle Ages, when some Catholic popes and bishops, who had taken vows of chastity, and therefore usually had no legitimate children of their own, gave their nephews such positions of preference as were often accorded by fathers to son.

Several popes elevated nephews and other relatives to the cardinalate. Often, such appointments were a means of continuing a papal "dynasty".

For instance, Pope Callixtus III, head of the Borgia family, made two of his nephews Cardinals; one of them, Rodrigo, later used his position as a Cardinal as a stepping stone to the papacy, becoming Pope Alexander VI. Alexander then elevated Alessandro Farnese, his mistress's brother, to the cardinalate; Farnese would later go on to become Pope Paul III. It was Alexander's excesses (also fathering Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia illegitimately on two separate mistresses) that shocked Martin Luther and led to the campaign against Nepotism becoming part of the Protestant Reformation.

Paul III also engaged in nepotism, appointing, for instance, two nephews, aged fourteen and sixteen, as cardinals. The practice was finally ended when Pope Innocent XII issued the bull Romanum decet Pontificem, in 1692. The papal bull prohibited popes in all times from bestowing estates, offices, or revenues on any relative, with the exception that one qualified relative (at most) could be made a Cardinal.

Political
Nepotism is a common accusation in politics when the relative of a powerful figure ascends to similar power seemingly without appropriate qualifications. Such accusations are often difficult to prove, but it is true that in many parts of the world there have been families whose influence in the politics of their country has extended over several generations - the Kennedys in the United States, the Medici in Renaissance Florence, or the Bhutto family of Pakistan for instance.

Family Dictatorship
In some states, a "Family Dictatorship" has formalised the practice, with strong leaders handing down power as if in a monarchical system. The office of Roman Emperor began in this way, and the most prominent modern examples are in Cuba and North Korea.

Business
In the business world, it has been historically usual for children to be brought up on the family farm, for example, and to take over on the death or retirement of the parent - this would not normally be considered nepotism, even in modern business practice. In larger organisations, however, accusations of preferral for promotion due to nepotism can be poisonous to labor relations and are sufficiently commonplace for guidance to be issued through a number of channels]].

Entertainment
As in politics, the entertainment industry has seen a number of "showbiz dynasties" in which several members of the same family have found success in the same field. The Barrymores, the Redgrave family and the Est family are all examples of such dynasties.