Gerontocracy

[1] Although the idea of the elderly holding power exists in many cultures, the gerontocracy has its western roots in ancient Greece.

[2] An example of the ancient Greek gerontocracy can be seen in the city-state of Sparta, which was ruled by a Gerousia, a council made up of members who were at least 60 years old and who served for life.

[3] Between 1982 and 1992, the Central Advisory Commission's power and authority often surpassed the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

In the Soviet Union, gerontocracy became increasingly entrenched starting in the 1970s;[5] it was prevalent in the country until at least 1985, when a more dynamic and younger, ambitious leadership headed by Mikhail Gorbachev took power.

[6] Leonid Brezhnev, its foremost representative,[7] died in 1982 aged 75, but had suffered a heart attack in 1975, after which generalized arteriosclerosis set in, so that he was progressively infirm and had trouble speaking.

[9] In 1980, the average Politburo member — generally a young survivor of the Great Purge who rose to power in the 1930s and 1940s — was 70 years old (as opposed to 55 in 1952 and 61 in 1964), and by 1982, Brezhnev's minister of foreign affairs, Andrei Gromyko; his minister of defense, Dmitriy Ustinov; and his premier, Nikolai Tikhonov (who succeeded Kosygin), were all in their mid-to-late seventies.

"[12] Other communist countries with leaders in their seventies or higher have included: On the sub-national level, Georgia's party head, Vasil Mzhavanadze, was 70 when forced out and his Lithuanian counterpart, Antanas Sniečkus, was 71 at death.

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives from 2019 to 2023,[23] and Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader from 2015 to 2021, were both the oldest holders of their offices in U.S.

This is at the expense of unmarried younger men, whose development up to the age of thirty is in a state of social suspension, prolonging their adolescent status.

The paradox of Samburu gerontocracy is that popular attention focuses on the glamour and deviant activities of these footloose bachelors, which extend to a form of gang warfare, widespread suspicions of adultery with the wives of older men, and theft of their stock.

In another Indian state, West Bengal, CPI(M) founderJyoti Basu was 86 years old when he stepped down from the office of chief minister of the state after a record-setting 24 years of office, but he continued to remain a member of the Polit Bureau until a few months before his death in 2010 and was consulted on all matters related to governance by his successor and his cabinet as well as his other party colleagues.

Italian president Sergio Mattarella is 83, while his predecessors Giorgio Napolitano and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi were 89 and 85 respectively when they left office.

As of 2014, the average age of Italian university professors is 63, of bank directors and chief executive officers 67, of members of parliament 56, and of labor union representatives 59.

[38][39][40][41] Modern Japan has been described as a gerontocracy (or "silver democracy") and "generationally unjust, partially a product of the country's severely ageing population.

Earlier Bangladeshi heads of state who left office in their 70s or higher include prime minister Ataur Rahman Khan (at 75) and president Iajuddin Ahmed (at 78, having also been Chief Adviser until age 76).

Opposition to gerontocracy may cause weakening or elimination of this characteristic by instituting things like term limits or mandatory retirement ages.

Judges of the United States courts, for example, serve for life, but a system of incentives to retire at full pay after a given age and disqualification from leadership has been instituted.