THE idea that power could corrupt physically as well as morally—that the strain of high office might damage an incumbent’s health—took a serious knock in the 1970s, with the publication of the first “Whitehall” study by Michael Marmot of University College, London. This showed that, among British civil servants, it is those at the top of the pyramid who are healthiest and live longest, even when other factors are taken into account. Being the alpha dog, Sir Michael found, is itself an elixir of life.

Research just published in the British Medical Journal, though, tells a different story. Anupam Jena of Harvard University and his colleagues looked not at civil servants, but at those who won elections to take the position of head of a government. Dr Jena compared the subsequent lifespans of 279 winners of elections in 17 countries (going back, in the case of Britain, to the early 18th century) with those of 261 runners-up in such contests who never subsequently won the top office. Using actuarial data, he concluded that winning and exercising the highest of offices in these countries takes an average of 2.7 years off the victor’s lifespan. For elected, rather than unelected politicians, then, supreme power really does look like a Faustian bargain.