In this section taken from the American Election Courier, our journalists answer questions from our readers. Click here to subscribe.
How can we explain that, in a country of more than 300 million inhabitants, there has been no one talented to replace Biden and Trump? Where is the political succession in the United States?
—Jean-Marc Neault
The 2024 presidential duel opposes two adversaries aged over 75, a first in history.
At almost 82 years old, Joe Biden is already the oldest serving president in the two centuries of existence of the American Republic. If he is elected again next November, the Democrat will celebrate 86 candles at the end of his second term.
His opponent, Donald Trump, celebrated his 78the birthday on Friday June 14.
It’s not just presidential candidates who are part of the elderly.
Congress, which brings together the House of Representatives and the Senate, also has the air of a golden age club. The average age of senators is 64, while that of representatives is 57.9, well above the median age of Americans (38.8).
The Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, is 73 years old, while his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, is 82. The two look like youngsters compared to the dean of American parliamentarians, Chuck Grassley, who, at 90 years old, has represented Iowa in the Senate since 1981.
Conversely, there are only 2 senators and 36 representatives under 40 years old.
“The dictatorship of experience”
How can we explain this domination of white heads at the top of the American democratic apparatus?
Daniel Stockemer, full professor of political studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa, has studied the question.
Analyzing the 2020 House of Representatives elections, he came to the conclusion that young candidates performed less well in elections, both in party primaries and in general elections.
The reason: “the dictatorship of experience”, explains the holder of the Konrad-Adenauer Research Chair in Empirical Studies of Democracy.
“Experience has become the main electoral argument, and young people, by definition, do not have it. »
Parties are therefore less likely to choose them to represent them and to entrust them with winnable constituencies.
For example, those aged 40 and under only accounted for 7% of candidates for the 2020 elections.
In the words of Mr. Stockemer, young candidates are lacking “electoral capital”, a concept which brings together the experience of electoral campaigns and political office, contacts within the community, party support and the capacity to finance his campaigns.
This under-representation of younger generations also causes “a significant democratic deficit”, according to Daniel Stockemer.
“Young people are not represented in the assemblies, so neither are their ideas and concerns. Maybe we would talk more about gun control, climate change and student debt if there were more young people in Congress,” maintains the researcher, who does not hesitate to speak of a real “alienation politics” of young people.
As proof, only 23% of 18-29 year olds voted in the last elections, compared to 52.2% of voters nationally.
“How can we interest young people in politics when the candidates are the age of their grandparents or great-grandparents? (…) It’s a whole political generation that we’re preventing from emerging,” underlines Mr. Stockemer.
To encourage a renewal of the American political class, an age limit of 75 should be imposed on candidates for elected office, as the Canadian Senate did a few years ago, suggests the political scientist.
The vast majority of Americans agree with him: according to a 2022 Reuters-Ipsos poll, 86% of them believe that the age limit for access to the presidency should be set at 75 years old.