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If you have reached the pinnacle of your political career - leader of your country - what do you normally do afterwards...

I can imagine this could vary from political king-maker to diplomat to inspirational speaker to charity figurehead and so forth; but what are most common career activities of ex-leaders?

indigochild
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LateralFractal
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  • Something not already mentioned is going into the public sector. E.g. Schröder certainly didn't get his Gazprom position because he signed off on the NorthStream Pipeline but because of his great credentials – user45891 Nov 18 '14 at 16:37
  • They get compensated for all the favors they granted to their rich buddies while in office. Million dollar speaker fees are the easiest way to hide the bribe, I mean, legitimate compensation because their time is worth that much. – Dunk Nov 18 '14 at 20:53
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    @user45891 By "public sector" do you mean "private sector"? – cpast Nov 18 '14 at 23:54
  • @cpast ah sorry yes. – user45891 Nov 19 '14 at 14:35

3 Answers3

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They paint:

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Well, that's not all they do. I think the only real answer here is that "they do what a lot of people do at the end of their careers". They wind down, do a lot of volunteer work, ease into a managerial role of some sort, write memoirs, pick up hobbies, etc.

Granted, a world leader tends to also posses a level of wealth and influence that many of us that retire won't have. As such, they can go a bit bigger with some of these things. Their sliding into a different career may include political consulting, or lobbying, or running a firm or sitting on the board of directors. Their volunteer work may include founding a non-profit or being on the boards of many large charities. Their social events may include 5-figure speaker's fees.

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Beside all the usual ones (retiring, writing memoirs, making big bucks on the speaker circuit, yearning for a come-back) there is an interesting one you might not have thought about. In the EU, it has become common for the top positions to be filled by politicians who previously served as the leader of one of the smaller countries (e.g. Jacques Santer, Jean-Claude Juncker, José Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy). Some even specifically resign from a leadership position in a not-so-small country to move to the EU level (Donald Tusk).

Some Secretaries General of NATO were also former prime ministers (Paul-Henri Spaak, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Jens Stoltenberg).

Relaxed
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  • They also serve in other national positions, for example as diplomats or back-benchers, where they can advise their successors. – PointlessSpike Nov 18 '14 at 15:29
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It depends upon the type of leader one was. The range of options is wide open.

If you're Idi Amin, you live out your life in exile.

If you're Slobodan Miloševic, you live out your life in prison.

If you're Muammar Gaddafi, you get killed by a group of opposition rebels.

These are obviously all examples of bad leaders coming to an end, but exile, prison, or execution appear to be common options.

Mohammad Mosaddegh was by most accounts a good leader who ran afoul of US and UK petroleum interests. After the CIA and MI6 orchestrated a coup, he was overthrown and lived out his life under house arrest.

In Israel, David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin, Yitzhak Shamir, Shimon Peres, and Benjamin Netanyahu served non consecutive terms as Prime Minister. People revolve through different positions in the government, so after leaving office as Prime Minister one is not necessarily done with public life.

Harry Truman lived a very modest life after the Presidency. Presidents since have lived quite varied existences after the Presidency.

Kennah
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