'Entrepreneur in politics': how many aspirants for power - most recently Silvio Berlusconi, Ross Perot and Michael Heseltine - have traded under that description. On the basis of a successful business record, they have claimed to be equipped to perform startling political feats - cutting through red tape, banging heads together, turning the country round, getting us on the move again. But is business like politics? What can the businessman contribute, and what are his disadvantages? Joseph Chamberlain's extraordinary career is one good source of answers to those questions.

LRB 23 June 1994 | PDF Download