How veteran leaders clinging to power can breed discontent and defection.
When it comes to power within a political party, state or nation, politics seems to be a fruitless game.
We saw it recently in the state of Maharashtra, one of India’s most important electoral districts.
Ajit Pawar, a breakaway National Congress Party (NCP) politician, brought with him a group of MPs and was appointed deputy chief minister under the BJP-led government.
The NCP is led by his 84-year-old uncle, and Pawar has defendedbetrayal‘ on the grounds that even the country’s civil servants retire at the age of 60.
It was a turning point in Indian politics as his uncle, Sharad Pawar, had been the youngest state chief minister but retained power within his party. The irony of the situation is compounded by the fact that the defector, Ajit Pawar, who has called for the reins of party leadership to be handed over to a “younger generation”, himself is 63 years old.
Older politicians being seen as legitimate holders of political power is the norm rather than the exception in India – a situation that can be seen in much of the rest of the world.
In the United States, an octogenarian will run for president in 2024 English And France, the average age of a deputy or senator is about 60 years. One of the main objections leveled against Macron before he became the youngest French president in history at the age of 39 in 2017, was his inexperience and relative youth.
But what are perceived as inconveniences are actually part and parcel of advancing policy. German sociologist Karl Mannheim argues that young people, as part of a new generational unit, bring new perspectives to society.
They are less bound by established traditions and social norms than the older generation.
This detachment from established structures allows them to question existing practices and generate innovative ideas. That’s because they have critical distance of the prevailing social order, which gives them the ability to examine society and imagine alternative futures.
When young politicians run for office, they also tend to increase turnout among the 18-30 year old population. A notable example of this was when Justin Trudeau was elected Prime Minister of Canada in 2015.
According to Canadian electionthe participation rate of Canadians aged 18 to 24 increased from 38.8% in 2011 to 57.1% in 2015.
Another major drawback of not allowing young leaders to take over is that they are encouraged to break with their party of origin and form alliances with former electoral rivals or seek to form their own independent political parties. In India, where coalitions are almost essential to form governments in most states, this undermines the stability of the ruling party.
It also increases the uncertainty voters face – they can choose a particular platform or ideology, but they can’t be sure that a leader will turn around and forge new alliances with the party they are essentially opposing. This undermines trust in and commitment to the functioning of democratic procedures.
