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Agerontocracy is a form of rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are substantially older than most of the adult population.
In many political structures, power within the ruling class accumulates with age, making the oldest individuals the most powerful. Those holding the most power may not be in formal leadership positions, but often dominate those who are. In a simplified definition, a gerontocracy is a society where leadership is reserved for elders.[1]
Although the idea of the elderly holding power exists in many cultures, the gerontocracy has itswestern roots inancient Greece.Plato stated that "it is for the elder man to rule and for the younger to submit".[2] An example of the ancient Greek gerontocracy can be seen in thecity-state ofSparta, which was ruled by aGerousia, a council made up of members who were at least 60 years old and who served for life.[3]
In democracies, gerontocracy is connected to highervoter turnout with age and can result in disproportionatepension spending.[4]
Reporting on the then 92-year-oldPaul Biya's campaign for aneighth term aspresident ofCameroon,NPR noted a high rate of elderly heads of state across Africa, includingPeter Mutharika ofMalawi,Yoweri Museveni ofUganda,Alassane Ouattara of theIvory Coast,Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo ofEquatorial Guinea andEmmerson Mnangagwa ofZimbabwe. At the time of the article's writing, Mutharika was 85 years old and Museveni was 81, while the latter three were all 83. Biya himself was the oldest non-regent incumbent head of state.[5]
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 hisLithuanian counterpart,Antanas Sniečkus, was 71 at death. Nowadays,Cuba has been characterized as a gerontocracy: "Although the population is now mainly black ormulatto and young, its rulers form a mainly white gerontocracy",The Economist wrote in 2008.[6] Cuba'sFidel Castro hadde facto ruled the country for nearly 50 years, effectively retiring in 2008 at the age of 82, although he remained the leader of the Communist Party of Cuba until 2011. He was replaced by his brother,Raúl Castro, who was 89 years old at the time of his own retirement.[citation needed]
Between 1982 and 1992, theCentral Advisory Commission's power and authority often surpassed thePolitburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. It was quipped, "the 80-year-olds are calling meetings of 70-year-olds to decide which 60-year-olds should retire",[7] asCMC chairmanDeng Xiaoping did not retire until the age of 85 after forcing his predecessorHua Guofeng to retire at age 60.[citation needed] Also, before that,CCP ChairmanMao Zedong died in office at the age of 82.
In theSoviet Union, gerontocracy became increasingly entrenched starting in the 1970s;[8] it was prevalent in the country until at least 1985, when a more dynamic and younger, ambitious leadership headed byMikhail Gorbachev took power.[9]Leonid Brezhnev, its foremost representative,[10] died in 1982 aged 75, but had suffered aheart attack in 1975, after which generalizedarteriosclerosis set in, so that he was progressively infirm and had trouble speaking. During his last two years he was essentially a figurehead.[11] His premier,Alexei Kosygin, was 76 when he resigned in October 1980, by which time he was very ill and two months short of his death.[12]
In 1980, the averagePolitburo member — generally a young survivor of theGreat 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, and his first vice president,Vasily Kuznetsov, was already in his eighties.[13]Yuri Andropov, Brezhnev's 68-year-old successor, was seriously ill with kidney disease when he took over,[14] and after his death fifteen months later, he was succeeded byKonstantin Chernenko, then 72, who lasted thirteen months before his death and replacement with Gorbachev. Chernenko became the third Soviet leader to die in less than three years, and, upon being informed in the middle of the night of his death, U.S. PresidentRonald Reagan, who was seven months older than Chernenko and just over three years older than his predecessor Andropov, is reported to have remarked, "How am I supposed to get anyplace with the Russians if they keep dying on me?"[15]
In the Indian state ofTamil Nadu, the government headed by 87-year-old state chief ministerM. Karunanidhi was another example of gerontocracy. 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 thePolit Bureau until a few months before his death in 2010 and was consulted on all matters related to governance byhis successor and his cabinet as well as his other party colleagues.[citation needed]
Present-day Italy is often considered a gerontocracy,[16] even in the internal Italian debate.[17][18] The Monti government had the highest average age in the western world at 64 years, with its youngest members being 57. Former Italian prime ministerMario Monti was 70 when he left office. His immediate predecessor,Silvio Berlusconi, was 75 at the time of resignation in 2011. The previous head of the governmentRomano Prodi was nearly 69 when he stepped down in 2008. Italian presidentSergio Mattarella is84, while his predecessorsGiorgio Napolitano andCarlo Azeglio Ciampi were 89 and 85 respectively when they left office. This trend has been disrupted in recent years, withMatteo Renzi becoming prime minister at age 39 in 2014, andGiorgia Meloni assuming the office at age 45 in 2022. 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.[16][17][18][19]
ModernJapan has been described as a gerontocracy (or "silver democracy") and "generationally unjust, partially a product of the country's severelyageing population."[20]
TheRoman Republic was originally an example; the wordsenate is related to theLatin wordsenex, meaning "old man".Cicero wrote: "They wouldn't make use of running or jumping or spears from afar or swords up close, but rather wisdom, reasoning, and thought, which, if they weren't in old men, our ancestors wouldn't have called the highest council the senate."[21]
In Kenya,Samburu society is said to be a gerontocracy. The power of elders is linked to the belief in their curse, underpinning their monopoly over arranging marriages and taking on further wives. 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.[22]
American Indian elders andAustralian Aboriginal elders are traditional figures of wisdom and authority in many Native American and Aboriginal cultures.[citation needed]
States and religious organizations such asIran,Saudi Arabia, theVatican andthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in which leadership is concentrated in the hands ofreligious elders can be considered gerontocracies. In Iran, parliamentary candidates must be under 75, despite the age of the senior religious leaders. Saudi Arabia, nominally a theocratic monarchy, has been likened to various late communist states, ruled by gerontocrats. Aged king Saud and his aged relatives held rule along with many elder clerics. They were in their eighties (born c. 1930).[23] Since 2017, however, power has become concentrated byMohammed bin Salman–31 years old at the time when he becamecrown prince of Saudi Arabia. MBS, as his name is often abbreviated, has sidelined powerful, older members of the Saudi family.[24]
In comparison to other countries, politicians in the United States are uniquely old.[25] The observation of gerontocracy in the United States has been a subject of frequent criticism.[26] A 2025 study examining why the US stands out in this regard found limited or inconsistent evidence for potential explanations such as greater public demand for older candidates, demographics-related explanations, or the role of US electoral institutions, while finding evidence indicating that the US system of campaign finance favored older candidates for public office.[25]
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Under presidentsDonald Trump andJoe Biden, the U.S. government has been described as a gerontocracy.[27][28] At 70, Trump was theoldest person ever to be inaugurated president, until the inauguration of Biden at the age of 78 years and two months. After hissecond inauguration, Trump was again the oldest person inaugurated as president, at 78 years, seven months, and six days old.
Biden's age wasa subject of concern during his presidency and especially hisreelection campaign, culminating in hiswithdrawal on 21 July 2024.[29][30] Biden served as the oldest president at the end of his tenure, beatingRonald Reagan's record of 77; he was 82 years and two months old by the end of his term in 2025,[31][32] making him the first president to turn 80 while in office.[33] Assuming he serves until the end of his term, Trump will be the new record holder at 82 years, seven months, and six days old.
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Nancy Pelosi, thespeaker of the House of Representatives from 2019 to 2023,[34] andMitch McConnell, theSenate majority leader from 2015 to 2021, were both the oldest holders of their offices in U.S. history.[35] At 87 years old in 2020, senatorsDianne Feinstein andChuck Grassley were both the oldest members of Congress.[36] Feinstein ultimately died in office three years later at the age of 90.[37][38]
In 2021, the average age of a senator was 64,[39] and positions of power within the legislatures — such as chairmanships of various committees — are usually bestowed upon themore experienced, that is, older, members of the legislature.Strom Thurmond, a U.S. senator fromSouth Carolina, left office at age 100 after almost half a century in the body, whileRobert Byrd ofWest Virginia was born in 1917 and served in the Senate from 1959 to his death in 2010 at age 92. Both Thurmond and Byrd had served aspresident pro tempore of the Senate, a position that is third in thepresidential line of succession and is now held byChuck Grassley (born 1933).
On 20 December 2024, conservative news websiteDallas Express published an article titled "Where Is CongresswomanKay Granger?",[40] in reference to the Republican congresswoman fromTexas. Granger was 81 years old at the time of publishing and had not voted in the House since 24 July 2024; she was seldom seen in public but did attend a portrait-unveiling ceremony honoring her time on theHouse Appropriations Committee in November. Granger was reported to have been living in anassisted living facility due tocognitive decline and her son confirmed she had "dementia issues."[41][42][43] Granger had previously confirmed in 2023 that she would not run for re-election in2024 and stepped down from her role as Appropriations Chair on 10 April 2024.[44]
Less than six months into the119th Congress, three Democratic representatives had died, all in their seventies. BothRaúl Grijalva andGerry Connolly had stated before their deaths that they would not run, whileSylvester Turner had only been in the House since November 2024, replacing another representative who died.
InMedieval England,aldermen (literally "elder men") were local political leaders second to a mayor. The title is still used in some countries colonized by theBritish Empire, such as the U.S.,Canada,Australia andSouth Africa.[citation needed]
During the 2010–2012Arab Spring, every state in North Africa which experienced a revolution had a leader in their late sixties or older:Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia (who had ousted 84-year-oldHabib Bourgiba in 1987) was 74 when forced out;[d]Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was 82 when forced out; andMuammar Gaddafi was 69 whenassassinated. Additionally, during theSecond Arab Spring in North Africa and West Asia,Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria was 82 whenforced out;Hani Mulki of Jordan was 66 when forced out;Adil Abdul-Mahdi of Iraq was 77 when forced out; andOmar al-Bashir of Sudan was 75 when deposed.
InBangladesh, prime ministerSheikh Hasina was 76 when she was ousted in thenon-cooperation movement. In turn,Muhammad Yunus was 84 when he succeeded Hasina. Earlier Bangladeshi leaders who left office in their 70s or higher include prime ministerAtaur Rahman Khan (at 75) and presidentIajuddin Ahmed (at 78, having also beenChief Adviser until age 76).
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Outside the political sphere, gerontocracy may be observed in other institutional hierarchies of various kinds. Generally the mark of a gerontocracy is the presence of a substantial number ofseptuagenarian oroctogenarian leaders—those younger than this are too young for the label to be appropriate, while those older than this have generally been too few in number to dominate the leadership. The rarecentenarian who has retained a position of power is generally by far the oldest in the hierarchy.
Gerontocracy generally occurs as a phase in the development of an entity, rather than being part of it throughout its existence. Opposition to gerontocracy may cause weakening or elimination of this characteristic by instituting things like term limits ormandatory 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. TheInternational Olympic Committee instituted a mandatory retirement age in 1965, andPope Paul VI removed the right ofcardinals to vote for a newpope once they reached the age of 80, which was to limit the number of cardinals that would vote for the new Pope, due to the proliferation of cardinals that was occurring at the time and is continuing to occur (when Paul died there were 15 cardinals over 80 compared to 114 young enough to be electors[45] while whenPope Francis died there were 117 cardinals over 80 compared to 135 young enough to be electors).
Gerontocracy may emerge in an institution not initially known for it. TheRamakrishna Order andChurch of Christ (Latter Day Saints) were both founded by young men[e] but soon evolved enduring seniority-based succession systems with the result that in 2025 the successor organizations are led by men (Swami Gautamananda, its seventh nonagenarian president[46] andDallin H. Oaks, the ninth man to serve as president, and third to accede, past age 90) who did not even accede to the respective presidencies until already in their nineties.
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