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On the Knife's Edge: Public Officials and the Life Cycle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2022

Burdett Loomis
Burdett Loomis*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Extract

LaRuth, at forty, was on the knife's edge. Another two years and he'd be a man of influence, and therefore ineligible for any politics outside the House–or not ineligible, but shopworn, no longer new, no longer fresh. He would be ill-suited, and there were other practical considerations as well, because who wanted to be a servant for twelve or fourteen years and then surrender an opportunity to be master? Not LaRuth. So the time for temporizing was nearly past. If he was going to forsake the House and reach for the Senate (a glamorous possibility), he had to do it soon.

Ward Just, The Congressman Who Loved Flaubert

Ward Just's fictional congressman LaRuth faces two distinct, but related pressures. First, for members of the House, there are few opportunities for advancement. This truncated “structure of opportunities” forces tough choices upon ambitious politicians. The second pressure is no less profound. Ticking away are the dual clocks of chronological age and congressional seniority. Most members seek higher office early in their congressional career (though this may be changing some), when their ties to the House are least strong and the fires of ambition burn the hottest. Much as the externally imposed structure of opportunities affects career choices, so too do the roughly defined internal mandates of human development.

Type
Generational Politics
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , Summer 1984 , pp. 536 - 542
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1984

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References

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