“Age Limit for U.S. Presidential Candidates: A Solution to the Gray Political Staff?”

In 2020, Joe Biden reassured voters worried about his advanced age by suggesting he would only serve one term. At the end of April, he nevertheless announced that he would present himself to his own succession. On the Republican side, Donald Trump remains in the best position to win the nomination. In a year and a half, it is therefore likely that the Americans will have to choose between an 82-year-old outgoing president… and a 78-year-old former president.

This is much more than the standards in force in the private sector. Board members, for example, are generally expected to retire between the ages of 70 and 75.

Beyond the presidency, it is all the American political staff who are graying. Nancy Pelosi, long-time Speaker of the House, waited 82 years before giving way to younger people. The average age of his colleagues and senators continues to increase, reaching today 58 and 65 years, against an average of 48 years for adult Americans.

A lack of real competition

This discrepancy is cause for concern, especially when the major political issues of the moment raise questions of intergenerational justice. The debt accumulated today will have to be repaid tomorrow, and the effects of global warming on future generations will depend on how much carbon is put into the atmosphere by then.

So why do voters vote for such elderly representatives? In the United States as elsewhere, voter turnout increases with age. But the aging of elected officials is explained less by a deliberate choice than by the rules of the electoral game.

In European countries, several parties compete for the political cake, and the balance of power between them changes frequently, causing profound changes in the assemblies. In 2017, the victory of En Marche! thus brought to power many young deputies, and led to clear cuts in the ranks of the Socialist Party.

In the United States, the bipartisan system means that most of those elected to Congress are comfortably installed in constituencies acquired by their party, and renewed from election to election. Even in an initially tangential district, the winner’s notoriety and means give him a considerable advantage in the following ballot. Without real competition, many elected officials grow old on the electoral treadmill and only leave office when their own limitations become too apparent.

Set an age limit

This mechanism does not, however, explain the advanced age of presidential candidates, where the number of terms is limited to two. We must turn here to a second explanatory factor: the disproportionate weight of donors. In the absence of limits on campaign spending, victory depends on raising considerable funds. In 2020, Biden thus spent 1.01 billion dollars, more than 40 times the ceiling which prevails in the second round of the French presidential election. However, major donors are mostly elderly, and they are more inclined to support politicians of the same age as them. Younger candidates therefore leave with a considerable handicap.

The increase over the past few years in contributions from small, younger donors could ultimately contribute to the rejuvenation of political personnel. The United States could also set an age limit to be a candidate: after all, there is already a minimum age – 25, 30, and 35 years old to be a representative, deputy, and president. In the meantime, the French can congratulate themselves on their own electoral rules.

Vincent Ponsis an associate professor at Harvard Business School, affiliated with the Center for Economic Policy Research and the National Bureau of Economic Research.