The norm and practice by which an outgoing government or head of state hands power to a successor, determined by election or constitutional process, without resort to force or refusal to leave office. It depends on the loser accepting defeat and the security services obeying the constitutional outcome rather than the incumbent, and its absence, an incumbent who refuses to concede or a military that intervenes, is one of the clearest markers political scientists use to distinguish a consolidated democracy from one still at risk of backsliding. The transfer from Washington to Adams in 1797 and, two centuries later, from apartheid rule to Mandela's government in 1994, are commonly cited founding and modern examples.
Facts
Origin Year1797 marks the handover from George Washington to John Adams, which this atlas's own existing description already names as the commonly cited founding example. Washington's own 1789 accession was not itself a transfer, since he had no elected predecessor to hand power from; 1797 is the first instance of what this entity actually defines, a transfer of power determined by election rather than force, under the constitutional system the Washington-to-Adams handover itself established as precedent. Founding ContextA peaceful transfer of power happens when an incumbent who has lost an election, or reached the end of a legal term, hands authority to a successor without resorting to force or refusing to leave office. The 1797 handover from George Washington to John Adams, the first transfer decided by an election rather than by Washington's own retirement from an unopposed position, is commonly cited as having set the precedent that later American transfers followed. 1 Connections
Advocated By
Attlee took office in July 1945 as the winner of an ordinary general election against the sitting wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, an orderly and peaceful transfer of power.
Source Clement Attlee (UK Government)
The July 1945 general election, held while Churchill was still the wartime Prime Minister, transferred power to Attlee's incoming Labour government through an ordinary election rather than crisis or force.
Source Winston Churchill (UK Government)
Associated With
Washington's 1797 voluntary retirement is the classic first case; historians also point to the contested 1800-1801 Adams-to-Jefferson transition (see dissent).
Source President, Government Official (Britannica)
The framers created the presidency in the Constitutional Convention of 1787-88.
Source President, Government Official (Britannica)
Influenced By
A binding cap on how long one leader may serve forces a transfer of power to occur on schedule rather than depend on the incumbent's consent.
Source Congressional Term Limits (Britannica)
Practiced By
Source Peaceful transition of power (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. President, Government Official (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaQuote
In 1787-88 the framers of the new country's Constitution created the vastly more powerful office of the presidency of the United States.
Peaceful transition of power (Wikipedia)
Practiced By: Nigeria, Article text
The first peaceful transition of power between civilians in Nigeria took place in 2007
In Group: Amendment, Term Limits and Transfer of Power, Lead paragraph
A peaceful transition or transfer of power is a concept important to democratic governments in which the leadership of a government peacefully hands over control of government to a newly elected leadership.
View the SourceWinston Churchill (UK Government)
UK Government (gov.uk)Advocated By: Winston Churchill, Official biography, 1945 electionView the Source Clement Attlee (UK Government)
UK Government (gov.uk)Advocated By: Clement Attlee, Official biography, 1945 electionView the Source Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
The atlas records 1797, George Washington's voluntary retirement to his own chosen successor, as the founding instance of the peaceful transfer of power. Historian Lindsay Chervinsky, author of "Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic," argues the more historically significant precedent is 1800-1801: John Adams, having lost a genuinely contested election decided by the House of Representatives on the 36th ballot, conceded to his political rival Thomas Jefferson. Where 1797 shows a popular incumbent stepping aside voluntarily, 1800-1801 shows the harder case, a losing incumbent accepting defeat to the opposing party, which many historians consider the true test of the norm.
A dissenting reading, from Historian Lindsay Chervinsky on the 1800-1801 Adams-to-Jefferson transitionUSC Price School: Adams and the Peaceful Transfer of Power, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy
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