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Look up nepotism in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Nepotism is the showing of favoritism toward relatives, based upon that relationship, rather than on an objective evaluation of ability or suitability. For instance, offering employment to a relative, despite the fact that there are others who are better qualified and willing to perform the job, would be considered nepotism. The word nepotism is from the Latin word \'nepos\', meaning "nephew" or "grandchild".
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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 children of their own — gave their nephews positions of preference such as were often accorded by fathers to sonsArticle Nepotism. New Catholic Dictionary. Retrieved on 2007-07-12.
. Several popes are known to have elevated nephews and other relatives to the cardinalate. Often, such appointments were used as 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 VIArticle Pope Alexander VI. New Catholic Dictionary. Retrieved on 2007-07-12. . Coincidentally, Alexander—one of the most corrupt popes[attribution needed]—elevated Alessandro Farnese, his mistress\'s brother, to the cardinalate; Farnese would later go on to become Pope Paul IIIArticle Pope Paul III. Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2007-07-12. . Paul also engaged in nepotism, appointing, for instance, two nephews (aged fourteen and sixteen) Cardinals. The practice was finally ended when Pope Innocent XII issued a bull Romanum decet Pontificem in 1692Article Nepotism. New Catholic Dictionary. Retrieved on 2007-07-12. . 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.
Nepotism is a common accusation in politics when the relative of a powerful figure ascends to similar power seemingly without appropriate qualifications. For example, the popular British English expression "Bob\'s your uncle" is often thought to have originated when Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, promoted his nephew, Arthur Balfour, to the esteemed post of Chief Secretary for Ireland in what was widely seen as an act of nepotism. More recently, when U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski was elected Governor of Alaska, he appointed his daughter, State Representative Lisa Murkowski, to fill the remaining two years of his seat and was accused by some of nepotism. John F. Kennedy was accused of nepotism for his appointment of his brother Robert Kennedy as Attorney General, and there have been many allegations that during the presidency of George W. Bush it became much more widespreadSee for example, [1][2][3] in the US.
Many countries in the world have examples of this tilt towards dynastic rule, such as:
At some point, nepotism at high levels of government might serve to create what are in effect monarchies in nominal republics. In Syria, the case of the al-Assads mentioned above is one example. In Egypt, the likely similar succession of Gamal Mubarak to the Presidency upon Hosni Mubarak\'s death is equivalent. In Iraq, had there not been an overthrow of the government of Saddam Hussein with the US-led invasion, it would have been highly likely that his younger son, Qusay Hussein, would have succeeded to the presidency.
In Romania nepotism is very commonly used as a word describing a \'connection\' (relationship) that allows a person to obtain a certain job. \'Nepot\' in Romanian means "nephew" or "grandson". During communist rule, nepotism was often the only way of getting a good, well-paid or otherwise advantageous job.
The government of Singapore is aware of the charges of nepotism around the ruling Lee family, and justifies the high positions of its family members on the fact that they reached these positions due to merit alone, and that Singapore has a relatively limited talent base.
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