Term Limits
Term limits have been around since Athenian democracy, in which offices selected by sortition were limited to one consecutive year in office—though said term could be held multiple times in one’s lifetime. This example highlights one of the key characteristics of term limits: They can be divided into bans on consecutive officeholding or lifetime bans on holding an office for over a specific amount of time. Hypothetically, term limits could even extend past a single individual’s life to either a family or a political faction. For example, a member of a particular guild may be prevented from leading a trade association for more than two years in a row.
While term limits seem like a good idea in practice, virtually all of the research on them indicates otherwise. For example, term limits:
- Increase polarization (see: “Legislative Term Limits and Polarization” in The Journal of Politics)[[9]](#_ftn9)
- Reduce politicians’ skill (see: “Democracy among Strangers: Term Limits’ Effects on Relationships between State Legislators in Michigan” in State Politics & Policy Quarterly)[[10]](#_ftn10)
- Reduce politicians’ productivity (See: “How do electoral incentives affect legislator behavior?” in American Political Science Review.)[[11]](#_ftn11)
- Reduce voter turnout (See: “The Effect of State Legislative Term Limits on Voter Turnout” in State Politics & Policy Quarterly)[[12]](#_ftn12)
- Make a society more partisan (See: “Polarization without Parties: Term Limits and Legislative Partisanship in Nebraska’s Unicameral Legislature” in State Politics & Policy Quarterly)[[13]](#_ftn13)
- Do not reduce campaign spending (See: “A Return to Normalcy? Revisiting the Effects of Term Limits on Competitiveness and Spending in California Assembly Elections” in State Politics & Policy Quarterly)[[14]](#_ftn14)
There may be no functional reason for adding term limits versus other strategies designed to have the same effect, like restricting politicians to certain age ranges.