Kinship and politics

The available evidence suggests that approximately three-fourths of American public officials are drawn from less than 10 percent of the country's families. Until now, little serious scholarly attention has been devoted to the impact of kinship on involvement in political life. In Kinship and Politics, Donn M. Kurtz systematically examines the backgrounds and family networks of 104 members of the United States Supreme Court between 1789 and 1988, and 98 justices of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1812 to 1988. His comparative analysis indicates some remarkable similarities between the two levels of the judiciary. Kurtz finds that a majority of both sets of justices were members of families whose political activity extended over three or more generations and across state boundaries. Moreover, the families' political influence was expanded through marriage - of the justices and of their children. Kurtz posits that these kinship connections form part of a national pattern characteristic of most political leaders. In general, children of politicians have more governmental knowledge, which produces a stronger sense of political efficacy, which in turn increases the probability of partisan involvement at an earlier age with greater success.