History Main / PermanentElectedOfficial

* ''Literature/ThePeriJeanMaceGhostThrillers'': The post of Burns County Sheriff is practically an inherited position held by the patriarch of the Holze family going back over a century. They're bigoted, lazy, and probably corrupt, but nobody has really bothered challenging them. [[spoiler:Deputy Dean Turgeau runs against Joey Holze in book three and successfully unseats him.]]

* The Kage in ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'' are elected by the village elders and appointed by the feudal lord who runs the nation. The appointment is for life or until voluntary retirement. Of course, the lack of Kage being removed might simply be because they're too powerful to risk insulting.

JustTheFirstCitizen is often when the dictator poses as this. It may also lead to a HereditaryRepublic. See also ElectiveMonarchy, where a monarch has to be elected, but once they win, they have the position for life. Compare LoyalToThePosition, where a low-ranking official holds his job over successive administrations. Contrast ShortLivedLeadership.

JustTheFirstCitizen is often when the dictator poses as this. It may also lead to a HereditaryRepublic. Compare LoyalToThePosition, where a low-ranking official holds his job over successive administrations. Contrast ShortLivedLeadership.

* [[LightNovel/SagaOfTanyaTheEvil Tanya]] in ''FanFic/AYoungWomansPoliticalRecord'' gets elected Chancellor of alt-[[UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic Weimar Germany]], initially in a coalition government. After [[spoiler:fixing the economy, driving back the Francois occupation of the Rhine, and [[HistoricalInJoke reunifying with Austria via referendum]]]], her party wins a majority in the Diet. After [[spoiler:winning an alt-World War II (with somewhat different alliances)]], the country still has perfectly free elections but she's probably not going to lose one anytime soon.

* In the film version of ''WesternAnimation/HortonHearsAWho'', the Mayor of Whoville is revealed to be an inherited position, which implies this. Of course, Mayor seems to be just ceremonial, as the City Council seems to hold all the political power.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ElenaOfAvalor'', Dona Paloma has been Avalor's Magister of Trade for the past several years. She's won all of her past elections because [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating everyone else is too scared to run against her]]... until Season 2, where Chancellor Esteban suggests that Julio should run against her when the latter expresses frustration with her {{jerkass}} tendencies. Julio ends up winning [[HundredPercentAdorationRating unanimously]], although Paloma is hired as his assistant due to Julio's inexperience and Esteban feeling bad for her.

* Mayor Quimby of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' who tends to get voted back into office due to voter apathy, corruption, and the fact that the Republican party can't pick a candidate to oppose him. When they do, they picked Sideshow Bob (a known criminal).

* Late Jim Cloop, the mayor of Scrote in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', has the position permanently, because everyone agrees he's the best mayor they've ever had. Not "for life", ''permanently''. He died in office immediately after the election, and they couldn't afford to hold another one. When his first term was up, they noticed he hadn't raised taxes, taken bribes or embezzled public funds, so they voted him in again. That was over a century ago, and he's still mayor as of the most recent ''[[UniverseCompendium Discworld Companion]]''.

'''Mayor Quimby:''' ''[while watering pot plants in his office]'' Hey! [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne I am no longer illiterate]]!

* OlderThanRadio: The character translated as Mayor in Gogol's ''Theatre/TheInspectorGeneral'' (1836), who is a powerful CorruptHick with more powers than a mayor would be thought of as having. This being Czarist Russia, there was neither a press nor was central bureaucracy as strong as today. Of course, he had more power than a mayor of a comparable town today.

* Mayor Jeb from ''Webcomic/MenInHats'', a totally incompetent CorruptHick. As Aram puts it, [[http://www.meninhats.com/d/20031121.html "Why the hell do we keep voting for this guy?"]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': The Mayor of Townsville is a completely incompetent moron but manages to stay in office. One episode revealed that this is because no one ever runs against him - though he insists on campaigning anyway which annoys everyone so much that when Fuzzy Lumpkins tells him to shut up, the people vote him the new mayor despite the fact that he never actually enters the mayoral race. Of course Fuzzy turns out to be even worse so the girls get the old Mayor to take his job back.

* [[AuthorAvatar Chris-Chan]] in ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'' is this, taken UpToEleven : [[EgoPolis CWCville]] (which was named after him) was founded ''before he was even born'', seemingly for the sole purpose of him having a place to rule over.

JustTheFirstCitizen is often when the dictator poses as this. It may also lead to a HereditaryRepublic. Contrast ShortLivedLeadership.

'''Mayor Quimby:''' ''[while watering pot plants in his office]'' Hey! I am no longer illiterate!

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* The Kage in ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'' are elected by the village elders and appointed by the feudal lord who runs the nation. The appointment is for life or until voluntary retirement. Of course, the lack of Kage being removed might simply be because they're too powerful to risk insulting.

* OlderThanRadio: The character translated as Mayor in Gogol's ''Theatre/TheInspectorGeneral'' (1836), who is a powerful CorruptHick with more powers than a mayor would be thought of as having. This being Czarist Russia, there was neither a press nor was central bureaucracy as strong as today. Of course, he had more power than a mayor of a comparable town today.

* Late Jim Cloop, the mayor of Scrote in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', has the position permanently, because everyone agrees he's the best mayor they've ever had. Not "for life", ''permanently''. He died in office immediately after the election, and they couldn't afford to hold another one. When his first term was up, they noticed he hadn't raised taxes, taken bribes or embezzled public funds, so they voted him in again. That was over a century ago, and he's still mayor as of the most recent ''[[UniverseCompendium Discworld Companion]]''.
* Played with in the ''Literature/EndersShadow'' series. The office of Hegemon of Earth is a permanent position, at least when Peter is elected. However, he spends the early years of his administration setting up the government so that he would be the last Hegemon, with the OneWorldGovernment transitioning to a more conventional democracy.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' had Mayor Richard Wilkins III (he was also Richard Wilkins II and I as well). Not once in three lifetimes was he voted out of office.
* In ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'', Nucky Thompson seems to be this at first, but by the end of the season, we see that his hold on power is much more fragile than it appears. The mayor and the Commodore both thought that they had achieved this status, but it was revoked when they lost Nucky's backing due to a changing political climate.

* Scully from ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' has been the NYPD [=99th=] Precinct's union representative, despite his admitted incompetence, since he runs unopposed every year because no one else wants the job. Scully, himself, has no real interest in actually being the union representative. He's only in the position because union meetings have a [[DagwoodSandwich party sub]].
* On ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', [[spoiler: Garry is revealed to have spent the rest of his life as Mayor of Pawnee, winning each election thanks to an adoring public.]]

* The ''VideoGame/SimCity'' series lampshades this by having your advisors comment on how corrupt you are, and some call elections a "formality" (given that the only way to be voted out of office is to work your city into inescapable levels of debt), and mention in passing "the debauched toga parties" and wasteful spending.
** In the original game, you would be ousted by "an angry mob, led by your mother" if you fail to achieve the objectives in scenario mode.
** In later VideoGame/SimCity games, your default name is "Mayor Defacto". They've come to terms with your eternal rule, and have just accepted it.
** [[HotLibrarian Monique Diamond]], the finance advisor from ''VideoGame/SimCity 4,'' is particularly egregious with implications of embezzlement. She's not complaining; it's also implied she's skimming money off the top herself.
** It was possible to be fired (therefore losing the game) in the SNES version, though.
*** It is also possible to get fired in most versions of ''VideoGame/SimCity 2000'' and ''3000''.

* Ditto in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', where the leader of the faction is always the same. However, this is slightly justified in the ExpandedUniverse where the leaders undergo periodic life extension treatments. Also, unlike ''Civilization'', the factions in SMAC are based in ideology, which would make sense that they'd want to keep the founders of the ideology in power. Also, in case of Yang, his StateSec makes sure he stays in power. Also subverted in an ExpandedUniverse novel, where Yang gets arrested and put in jail for his atrocities and his political rival Jin Long is put in his place... except Long is actually a clone of Yang and takes Yang's name for political reasons and marries Yang's daughter.
* Also same in ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations'', no matter what the leader's title may be or the government of the faction, they're in office the whole game. Elections simply determine whether your political party leads the senate. And if your leader doesn't have a specific title AI players will refer to you as "Emperor", implying Republics and later governments are actually Constitutional Monarchies.

* [[PresidentEvil David Jefferson Adams]] in ''VideoGame/ShatteredUnion'' is ''[[DecidedByOneVote very]]'' closely elected President for his first term, and gets all his opponent disqualified for the next election. His second term [[NukeEm doesn't last long]].
* An ideal to be aspired to in ''VideoGame/{{Tropico}}'', hard to achieve.
** Actually fairly easy to achieve by tweaking your character's past and personality before the game starts. Coming to power via a military coup or socialist rebellion drastically reduce the expectations of your people for fair democratic elections. With the right setup, you can get away with never holding an election!

* In the ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' series:
** Tortimer, the mayor of the town in the first three games. He doesn't appear to actually ''do'' anything mayorly. There are never any elections (that you witness, anyway, no matter how long you play--apparently mayors in your town are elected for life), so it's not entirely clear that he ever ''was'' elected. This is lampshaded in TheMovie, where there ''is'' a mayoral election, and Tortimer wins by one vote. The ''only'' vote. Which he cast. The only reason he isn't mayor in ''New Leaf'' is that he retired.
** The PlayerCharacter is this in ''New Leaf''. S/he can have a 0% approval rating and the town can be filled with weeds and trash, but everyone will still refer to him/her as the mayor. What's more, the player didn't even want the position; s/he was mistaken for the ''real'' mayor, and the animals [[ButThouMust refused to believe otherwise]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' dictatorial empires elect rulers for life, while democratic empires can spend influence resource points to all-but-ensure re-election if a ruler has really useful bonuses and oligarchic or [[MegaCorp corporate]] empires can absolutely guarantee a ruler's re-election. It's also possible for leaders to attain immortality or something close to it and keep getting re-elected endlessly.
* Veronica, in ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons2014'', is the appointed head of the Guild which runs the town; she effectively serves as the mayor. If the player character is male and romances her daughter Angela, it's explained that Angela is trying to prove that she's capable of taking over the post when her mother decides to retire, suggesting that Guildmistress is both this trope and hereditary.

* The eponymous mayor of ''WesternAnimation/TomGoesToTheMayor'', who has remained in office for twelve years due to a combination of family connections, low voter turnout, and a bizarre local law giving mayors thirteen-year terms.
* Mayor Quimby of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' who tends to get voted back into office due to voter apathy, corruption, and the fact that the Republican party can't pick a candidate to oppose him. When they do, they picked Sideshow Bob (a known criminal).
** One of the future episodes revealed he was eventually indicted and reduced to working as a cab driver under the alias "Mohammed Jafar".

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': The Mayor of Townsville is a completely incompetent moron but manages to stay in office. One episode revealed that this is because no one ever runs against him - though he insists on campaigning anyway which annoys everyone so much that when Fuzzy Lumpkins tells him to shut up, the people vote him the new mayor despite the fact that he never actually enters the mayoral race. Of course Fuzzy turns out to be even worse so the girls get the old Mayor to take his job back.

'''Mayor Quimby:''' ''[while watering pot plants in his office]'' Hey! [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne I am no longer illiterate]]!

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' establishes that Palpatine's 13 years as Supreme Chancellor in the prequels is not the norm and there terms limits. However, being TheChessmaster he is, Palpatine engineered crisis after crisis so he could stay in office. Then at the end of the Clone Wars, he declared himself Emperor and the post stopped being an elective position.
** Legends also explains this was the case for Mon Mothma when she led the Rebel Alliance. There was a vote held every two years where it was decided if she would continue leading, but throughout the Galactic Civil War, she was never voted out. She later became the New Republic's first Chief of State, but would resign during the events of the ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy''. At least one faction (under General Garm Bel Iblis) split off from the Alliance in protest over this, although they rejoined later.

'''Mayor Quimby:''' ''[while watering pot plants in his office]'' Hey! I am no longer illiterate!

'''Mayor Quimby:''' ''[while watering pot plants in his office]'' Hey! [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne I am no longer illiterate!]]
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Sideshow Bob Roberts"

** The Solarian League is worse, though; the [[EvilBureaucrat Office Of Frontier Security]] is in bed with the [[MegaCorp transsteller corporations]]; the usual plan is to destabilize an independent star nation so that they'll "invite" in the Office Of Frontier Security for "protection"; the OFS guy is often "elected" to be "President For Life" while the transstellers take over the planet's economy and start looting.