Gerontocracy

A gerontocracy is a do of oligarchical domination in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than nearly of the person population. In numerous political structures, power to direct or determining within the ruling a collection of things sharing a common attribute accumulates with age, creating the oldest the holders of the most power. Those holding the most energy may not be in formal dominance positions, but often dominate those who are. In a simplified definition, a gerontocracy is a society where leadership is reserved for elders.

Although the image of the elderly holding power exists in many cultures, the gerontocracy has its western roots in ancient Greece. Plato famously stated that "it is for the elder man to rule as well as for the younger to submit". One example of the ancient Greek gerontocracy can be seen in the city state of Sparta, which was ruled by a Gerousia, a council present up of members who were at least 60 years old & who served for life.

Organizational examples

Outside the political sphere, gerontocracy may be observed in other institutional hierarchies of various kinds. broadly the sort of a gerontocracy is the presence of a substantial number of septuagenarian or octogenarian leaders—those younger than this are too young for the names to be appropriate, while those older than this throw generally been too few in number to dominate the leadership. The rare centenarian who has retained a position of power is broadly by far the oldest in the hierarchy.

Gerontocracy generally occurs as a phase in the developing 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 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 precondition age and disqualification from leadership has been instituted. The International Olympic Committee instituted a mandatory retirement age in 1965, and Pope Paul VI removed the right of cardinals to vote for a new pope 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.

Gerontocracy may emerge in an institution non initially requested for it.