A gerontocracy is a form of rule in which a political entity is ruled by leaders who are substantially older than most of the population. In many political structures, power within the ruling class ac
Meeting of the seven representatives of the Warsaw Pact countries in 1987: Gustáv Husák, Todor Zhivkov, Erich Honecker, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Wojciech Jaruzelski, and János Kádár. Their average age then was 69.
Leonid Brezhnev (then 72; right) and Dmitry Ustinov (then 71; left) at the 1979 Revolution Day Parade
Mahathir Mohamad became the world's oldest serving state leader (aged 92 years, 304 days at the time) and was also officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest serving prime minister.
Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei was 81 years old during this Friday service in 2020.
Paul Barthélemy Biya is a Cameroonian politician who has been serving as the second president of Cameroon since 1982. He was previously the fifth prime minister under President Ahmadou Ahidjo from 197
Gerontocracy
…gerontocracy is associated with a higher voter turnout with age and can result in disproportionate pension spending. Reporting on the then 92-year-old Paul Biya's campaign for an eighth term as president of Cameroon, NPR noted a high rate of elderly heads of state across Africa, including Peter Mutharika of…
Ahidjo in July 1982, three months before he resigned.
Biya with U.S. president Ronald Reagan in 1986
Biya with President of the European Commission Jacques Delors (left) and Manuel Marín (right) in 1989