Asserting object class

[Adi]

In a method, I'd like to assert that a parameter is an object which is
of a specific class or has this class as it's base class.

I can test on the __class__ and its __bases__ attributes, but its clumsy
and I'm wondering if there is an easier notation, like:

def method(self, p)
    assert class(p) == class(self)

This is comparable to - in a strongly typed language - specifying a
required base class as the type of the parameter.

Sincerely,
Anders Dinsen

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