Why Do Powerful Leaders Almost Never Step Down?

Jared Diamond looked at 22 outstanding political leaders from World War II onward and found that only two stepped down voluntarily. He thinks the table is in the third chapter of his book.

He includes Stalin, Sadat, Mussolini, and Hitler. Nelson Mandela, the founding post-apartheid leader of South Africa, retired voluntarily as prime minister, and Jared Diamond thinks Nelson Mandela was in his 80s. Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of independent Singapore, served as prime minister and also stepped down voluntarily. Jared Diamond says the time in office might have run 30 years and might have run 40. The other 20 did not leave on their own. Sadat was assassinated, Hitler committed suicide, Winston Churchill was voted out of office, and others were thrown out by a coup.

Jared Diamond concludes that in politics, once a person has become a powerful leader and has come to the conclusion that they are an effective, powerful leader, they are very unlikely to step down voluntarily.