In twenty-first-century Western Europe, almost all incumbents in political office have very high formal credentials. Aristocracy, rule by the nobility, has given way to meritocracy, rule by the well-educated. This dominance of the well-educated in the legislative and executive branches is a relatively modern phenomenon. We document how citizens with primary and secondary education have disappeared from Western European parliaments in the past decades. Cabinets are even more tilted towards the well-educated. Then we show how the connection between social class and the opportunities for a political career has weakened. A university education has almost become a condition sine qua non for recruitment for political office. Thirdly, we describe how various supply and demand factors in the selection process have led to extraordinarily large numbers of highly educated citizens among the political elites.