His hostility to foreign players in the industry (he expropriated several American oil companies holdings in 2007) limited investment and held back production. Chávez turned PDVSA into a personal fiefdom and used it as a cash cow many of his social programs were funded directly from the company s budget.

The CIO wouldn t have policymaking authority per se , but he or she should sit high in the government ideally with little bureaucratic encumbrance. The CIO would not have a fiefdom and would not compete for power or turf with other senior officials, but would simply remind the president or other people of the role of information every time it was appropriate.

Berlusconi did indeed run Italy the way he runs his companies like a private fiefdom, promoting cronies, intimidating critics, and paying people vast sums of money in exchange for their slavish devotion. And, two years after the earthquake in L Aquila in 2009, which killed hundreds of people, nothing much had been done to reconstruct the city, despite an initial flurry of publicity stunts showing Berlusconi, posing in a fireman s hat, personally taking charge.