[zedgerman]

The book “The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is almost always Good Politics” explains this fairly well. It’s a great read, maybe a bit depressing.

TLDR: it’s cheaper to pay off a small group (family) rather than a big group (populace).

[nindalf]

That is by far the best book I’ve read about politics. It starts with a simple premise and is able to explain a lot. This video gives the short version - https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs