History Main / HereditaryRepublic

* In ''Literature/SpaceViking'', Trask meets a shocked young man who has just become "Hereditary President of the Democratic Republic of Tetragrammaton", thanks to his father's death at the hands of Dunnan's raiders.

** Venice and Genoa, while [[InsistentTeminology calling themselves republics]], were arguably instead [[ElectiveMonarchy elective duchies]]. The elected leaders of those city-states ruled for life and had the title of "doge", the Venetian word for "duke".

** Then subverted when she wasn't nominated. Though she was later appointed Secretary of State. Now she's running for President again.

* In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings 2'', you can play as trade families in Medieval Trade Republics, such as Pisa or Venice. Only the head of one of five families, including your family, can be elected to the office. Much of your job is making sure to play this trope as straight as possible by winning the elections with money, prestige, and the occasional assassination. On occasion, you or your vassals will create titles labeled as "The Republic of X", with the same hereditary succession laws that came before it. There ''are'' republics that just elect a (for the purposes of the game) random character, but they aren't playable for precisely the reason that they can't semi-reliably be this trope (Crusader Kings is about playing as a dynasty rather than, technically, about playing a state).

* All the Stadholders of the Dutch Republic (1581-1795), while theoretically elected, were members of the House of Orange-Nassau and served for life. After UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars the Netherlands were made into an outright kingdom with Orange-Nassau as its royal house, which has remained on the throne up to this day.

*** Augustus had one biological child, a daughter named Julia whom he married to several potential successors before giving up on her and naming his wife's son Tiberius (stepson of Augustus) heir. Tiberius's son Drusus predeceased him, as did his brother Drusus and nephew Germanicus, while his other nephew Claudius was considered an idiot, but his great-nephew Caligula (who was Julia's grandson and Augustus's great-grandson on his mother's side) was available. Caligula was assassinated by his own PraetorianGuard, who installed Claudius. Claudius had a living son when he died, but he was too young to rule and Caligula's nephew Nero assassinated him before he came of age. Nero's death was followed by the "Year of Four Emperors".

*** The senate replaced Domitian with Nerva, the first of the "Five Good Emperors" who chose unrelated heirs. Except for the last, Marcus Aurelius, who was succeeded by his son Commodus.

** This trope in the Philippine setting, in fact, is the entire thesis of sociologist Alfred W. [=McCoy=]'s book-length study on dynastic power in the country, ''[[https://www.amazon.com/Anarchy-Families-Philippines-Perspectives-Studies/dp/029922984X An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines]]''. It follows a handful of economically and politically powerful Filipino dynasties, and examines how they form the national oligarchy and how they gain, lose and hold onto wealth and power, and how they're both cause and effect of a weak, pliable central state.

* While it's not at the national government level, [[UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics the Australian federal parliament seat]] of Kennedy has been held by two families almost uninterrupted since 1929 (Riordan family from 1929-1966, Katter family 1966-present), excepting a single term when Bob Katter Sr died a month before the 1990 election, and his son wasn't eligible to run due to holding a seat in the Queensland state parliament at the time.

** Even before Caesar the Senate and most elected positions in the Roman Republic were only open to Patricians, Rome's hereditary aristocracy.

->''"As a young man, I was taught to venerate [[HundredPercentAdorationRating President Tandi]] of Shady Sands. "The Founding Mother of the [[TheFederation New California Republic]]." Did you know her Presidency lasted [[PresidentForLife 52 years?]] And that her father, [[FounderOfTheKingdom Aradesh]], was the Republic's first President? Does that sound like democracy to you, or a hereditary dictatorship?"''

** There have been three cases when a president has been the descendant of a previous one: UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams and UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush were the sons of UsefulNotes/JohnAdams and UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush, respectively, while UsefulNotes/BenjaminHarrison was the grandson of UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison. UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt and UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt were distant cousins [[KissingCousins who were also closely related by marriage]].\\

** For the first couple of centuries after Augustus, it was rare for a ruler to pass power to his own son--far more commonly, the ruler would adopt a suitable heir (often marrying that heir to his daughter). That said, this was largely by chance. Very few of those emperors had adult or near-adult sons when they died, and the few who did almost invariably picked that son as heir.

Not ''quite'' the same as the PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny; that's when the country doesn't seem to fit the "democratic" or "people's" descriptor, while HereditaryRepublic is when it's the "Republic" part that's in doubt (though they can and often do overlap). May even have a PresidentForLife in charge. Many a BananaRepublic, if not ruled by an out-and-out military dictator or junta, will also settle for this instead, being controlled by a small oligarchy of wealthy and/or politically-powerful dynasties.

Not ''quite'' the same as the PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny; that's when the country doesn't seem to fit the "democratic" or "people's" descriptor, while HereditaryRepublic is when it's the "Republic" part that's in doubt (though they can and often do overlap). May even have a PresidentForLife in charge.

%%* In ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'', The Republic of Korell and for a time the Foundation itself.

* In ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'', two republics of this type are showcased -- Korell, where it serves to make a negative comparison with monarchies (who tend to end up at least somewhat more restrained by their pageantry) but has little influence on Korell's part of the plot otherwise, and [[spoiler: the Foundation]], where it explains how a fussy, not-too-competent bureaucrat is dictator.

* All of these examples probably pale in comparison with the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, where [[GenerationXerox two parent-and-child tandems have been President]] (Diosdado Macapagal and daughter Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo [[note]]who, by the way, can trace their descent directly to legitimate ''precolonial royalty''—the House of Lakandula, based in Pampanga province, which their family continues to dominate electorally to this day[[/note]] / Corazon "Cory" Aquino and son Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III), where the entire government is at the mercy of around [[UpToEleven 178 families]] ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_families_in_the_Philippines see the full list here]]), where ''at least three in four'' members of Congress have other relatives sitting in office, and where some families have held power in the same province or city for almost a century if not more. The list of examples run from the Aquinos to the Arroyos to the Binays to the Marcoses—and so on ''ad infinitum''. In fact, if not for the need to pretend at democracy, all that's missing is a formal peerage system.

* The World Government becomes this in the later centuries of ''The Medusa Chronicles'' by Creator/StephenBaxter and Creator/AlisdairReynolds, with the Springer-Soames family leveraging the Machine threat and their own HeroicLineage to make the President a hereditary position.

* The World Government becomes this in the later centuries of ''The Medusa Chronicles'', with the Springer-Soames family leveraging the Machine threat and their own HeroicLegacy to make the President a hereditary position.

* Common the ''Literature/Emberverse'' series, in which the loss of high technology causes much of the former United States to revert to explicitly or implicitly feudalistic political structures, often despite the best intentions of the founders of any given nation:

* Haiti's François Duvalier was succeeded by his son Jean-Claude Duvalier.

* The ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' expanded universe states that this was the case for the Confederacy of Man. It was ostensibly a democracy, but in truth an oligarchy of a few rich, powerful families ran the place. This was then overthrown during the course of the Terran campaign in the first game and replaced with a garden-variety dictatorship under Arcturus Mengsk.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E1DayOfTheDaleks Day of the Daleks]]", the Daleks' [[TheQuisling puppet ruler]] the Controller proudly states that his family have been controllers of the zone for three generations.
* ''{{Series/Tyrant}}'': Abbudin is one. Not only does Jamal Al Fayeed succeed his father as president (who had been in office ever since he seized power years before) but it's revealed that they aren't elected, even in a fixed race, until Barry convinces Jamal to amend the constitution so they will be. This makes it a more blatant example than most. [[spoiler:After Jamal's death, Barry automatically succeeds him, although he did manage to garner public support by becoming a hero in the civil war against the islamic insurgency.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' supplement ''Tir na Nog''. The government of the title country (which used to be called Ireland) appears to be democratic, but is actually under the control of the Danann Families.

* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' most Martian city states are principalities, as it is against religious law to claim the title of king or emperor, but some use democratic titles such as prime minister. This has absolutely no impact on the fundamental nature of the city state, as the position is still hereditary until someone ousts the current ruler.

* Syria, where Hafez al-Assad handed off power to his son Bashar, and had originally been planning to have his eldest son Bassel succeed him before Bassel [[DroppedABridgeOnHim died in a car crash]].

* Similar to the political dynasties of the US, the UK famously has the Benn family who have never left politics, and once had the Pitts (William Pitt the Elder and William Pitt the Younger), as well as many lesser-known families. The Benns also hold the hereditary peerage of Viscount Stansgate and the Benn baronetcy. They include: Tony Benn, Hilary Benn (male name), Sir John Benn, Stephen Benn, Emily Benn, William Wedgwood Benn, and others.

* And Pakistan has the Bhuttos: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto were both Prime Ministers of Pakistan. After the latter's assassination her husband was elected President and their son made chairman of the Pakistan People's Party.
* UsefulNotes/{{Greece}}'s politics can also be very dynastic. The most famous instances of these being the multiple Papandreous (Giorgios, his son Andreas, his grandson [[NamesTheSame Giorgios]]) and Karamanlises (Konstantinos,his nephew Konstantinos Androu "Kostas") who have served as Prime Ministers or Presidents.

** Consider that a study was done on the effect of family pedigree on winnability at the elections. The results revealed that, other factors constant, candidates who win the first time, even in effectively random circumstances, are ''four times more likely'' to have other relatives running for office in future. [[NightmareFuel Make of that what you will.]]

* UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire, at least at first. Augustus Caesar was, after all, [[JustTheFirstCitizen only the Republic's First Citizen]] (the term became "prince" later, which itself comes from the word "first" in Latin), and throughout his dynasty, there was juggling of the actual offices held. The pretense slid away slowly, because Rome's previous bad experience with monarchy meant it was politically expedient to not admit becoming one again. Augustus taking office was the ''de facto'' beginning of the Empire, but they waited three centuries before finally admitting that Rome had become an absolute dictatorship when the ''Princeps'' became ''Dominus''.

* Venice, Genoa, UsefulNotes/SanMarino and many other of Italy's city states of the Middle Ages started as republics, but with time the positions of power ended up in the hands of a few families (San Marino resisted until the seventeenth century). Eventually most of them became first lordships and then duchies (or were absorbed by those who became duchies), with the exceptions of Venice and Genoa, that remained hereditary republics until the end, and San Marino, which reverted to an actual republic in 1906.
* Despite not being a republic in the first place, Denmark made an honest try for this when the three prime ministers in office between 1993 and 2011 all had the family name Rasmussen. Unfortunately they were not related at all; Rasmussen is a somewhat common patronymic.
* If you ever delve into 19th century Latin American history (of really any country in the area), there is usually a pattern of "handful of conservative families let the presidency rotate between them" - "Liberal coup / electoral landslide" - "Infinite reelection of the liberal ''caudillo''" - Conservative coup / return to "democracy" and [[FullCircleRevolution the cycle starts at the beginning again]]. The conservative families usually own(ed) most land worth owning and were/are an aristocracy in all but name. The only thing that was changed by the 20th century was the advent of "communism" as a label for the fighters against the dynastic elite and the increasingly blatant and ruthless right wing military dictatorships.

* ''ComicBook/DoubleDuck'' has [[PeoplesRepublicOfTiranny the Republic of Belgravia]], that had debuted in ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' ruled by president Nestor Grimka, who in his one appearance vows to [[HeelFaceTurn abandon his country's plans for world domination]] and retire, and returns with his son Grigorji as the president, ready to lead the country toward democracy [[spoiler:as a ruse to cover the fact he's resumed the attempts at conquering the world]].