The Politics and Law of Term Limits

The Politics and Law of Term Limits PDF Author: Edward H. Crane
Publisher: Cato Institute
ISBN: 9781882577125
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Eighty percent of the American people say congressional terms should be limited. Fifteen states have already done so, and efforts are spreading to more states and hundreds of cities. Would term limits be a good idea? Would they be constitutional? The Politics and Law of Term Limits presents both sides of the issue and lets the reader decide. Contributors include syndicated columnist George F. Will, League of Women Voters president Becky Cain, Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution, constitutional scholar Ronald D. Rotunda, and former White House counsel Lloyd Cutler, among others. The Founding Fathers did not include term limits in the Constitution because they thought citizen legislators, not professional politicians, would be the rule, and an overwhelming number of voters from every demographic group in the nation believe that should be the case today. Problems such as the burgeoning federal deficit indicate that careerism and legislative "experience" may not be all they are cracked up to be. Proponents of term limits argue that abolishing careerism would open the political process to a new type of candidate - the aspiring citizen legislator - who wishes to take a brief time out from his or her work to make a contribution to society. But opponents of term limits counter that such a change would induce an unhealthy dependence on congressional aides and professional lobbyists. Who is correct? You decide.

The Politics and Law of Term Limits

The Politics and Law of Term Limits PDF Author: Edward H. Crane
Publisher: Cato Institute
ISBN: 9781882577125
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Get Book Here

Book Description
Eighty percent of the American people say congressional terms should be limited. Fifteen states have already done so, and efforts are spreading to more states and hundreds of cities. Would term limits be a good idea? Would they be constitutional? The Politics and Law of Term Limits presents both sides of the issue and lets the reader decide. Contributors include syndicated columnist George F. Will, League of Women Voters president Becky Cain, Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution, constitutional scholar Ronald D. Rotunda, and former White House counsel Lloyd Cutler, among others. The Founding Fathers did not include term limits in the Constitution because they thought citizen legislators, not professional politicians, would be the rule, and an overwhelming number of voters from every demographic group in the nation believe that should be the case today. Problems such as the burgeoning federal deficit indicate that careerism and legislative "experience" may not be all they are cracked up to be. Proponents of term limits argue that abolishing careerism would open the political process to a new type of candidate - the aspiring citizen legislator - who wishes to take a brief time out from his or her work to make a contribution to society. But opponents of term limits counter that such a change would induce an unhealthy dependence on congressional aides and professional lobbyists. Who is correct? You decide.

The Politics of Presidential Term Limits

The Politics of Presidential Term Limits PDF Author: Alexander Baturo
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198837402
Category : Comparative government
Languages : en
Pages : 666

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Book Description
Presidential term limits are one of the most important institutions in presidentialism. They are at the center of contemporary and historical debates and political battles between incumbent presidents seeking additional terms and their political opponents warning against democratic backsliding and the dangers of personalism. Bringing the team of country experts, comparativists, theorists, constitutional lawyers, and policy practitioners together, The Politics of Presidential Term Limits is a book that aims to provide a one-stop source for the comprehensive study of this topic. It includes theory and survey chapters that explain presidential term limits as an idea, constitutional norm, and an institution; country and comparative chapters including historical, intra-regime, and comparative regional studies, chapters that examine the effects of term limits as well as studies from the perspective of on-the-ground international constitutional builders and that ask what difference do term limits make.--Provided by publisher

Term Limits in State Legislatures

Term Limits in State Legislatures PDF Author: John M. Carey
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472096992
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
It has been predicted that term limits in state legislatures--soon to be in effect in eighteen states--will first affect the composition of the legislatures, next the behavior of legislators, and finally legislatures as institutions. The studies in Term Limits in State Legislatures demonstrate that term limits have had considerably less effect on state legislatures than proponents predicted. The term-limit movement--designed to limit the maximum time a legislator can serve in office--swept through the states like wildfire in the first half of the 1990s. By November 2000, state legislators will have been "term limited out" in eleven states. This book is based on a survey of nearly 3,000 legislators from all fifty states along with intensive interviews with twenty-two legislative leaders in four term-limited states. The data were collected as term limits were just beginning to take effect in order to capture anticipatory effects of the reform, which set in as soon as term limit laws were passed. In order to understand the effects of term limits on the broader electoral arena, the authors also examine data on advancement of legislators between houses of state legislatures and from the state legislatures to Congress. The results show that there are no systematic differences between term limit and non-term limit states in the composition of the legislature (e.g., professional backgrounds, demographics, ideology). Yet with respect to legislative behavior, term limits decrease the time legislators devote to securing pork and heighten the priority they place on the needs of the state and on the demands of conscience relative to district interests. At the same time, with respect to the legislature as an institution, term limits appear to be redistributing power away from majority party leaders and toward governors and possibly legislative staffers. This book will be of interest both to political scientists, policymakers, and activists involved in state politics. John M. Carey is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis. Richard G. Niemi is Professor of Political Science, University of Rochester. Lynda W. Powell is Professor of Political Science, University of Rochester.

Giving Up on Democracy

Giving Up on Democracy PDF Author: Victor Kamber
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
ISBN: 9780895264657
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
The hottest political issue in America, term limits, embodies voter fury at incumbent officeholders and the failures of Congress. But now, in this controversial new book, Victor Kamber argues that term limits themselves are a disastrous quick fix and must be stopped.

Term Limits and the Dismantling of State Legislative Professionalism

Term Limits and the Dismantling of State Legislative Professionalism PDF Author: Thad Kousser
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521839858
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This book examines how legislature rules affect the behavior of its members and policies.

Term Limits

Term Limits PDF Author: Gideon Doron
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739102138
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
The emergence and impact of the modern term limits movement is a unique story of political development and transformation. Despite its significant impact on politics and policy making, the 1990s implementation of term limits at the state level has received limited scholarly attention. This book, divided in two parts, presents an overview and detailed analysis of the origins and effects of the movement. The first part analyzes the political concept of term limits and its theoretical foundations. The second part focuses on the modern process of implementation at the state level. Term Limits will be of significant interest to leglislators, government officials, lobbyists, members of the judicial branch of state government and anyone who seeks an explication of this movement within its full political, economic, judicial, and historical context.

Term Limits and Legislative Representation

Term Limits and Legislative Representation PDF Author: John M. Carey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521552332
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Legislative term limits are the most important electoral reform on the political agenda in the United States. Term Limits and Legislative Representation tests the central arguments made by both supporters and opponents of the reform by examining the experience of Costa Rica, the only long-term democracy to impose term limits on legislators, and by providing extensive comparisons with legislatures in Venezuela and the United States. Professor Carey challenges claims made about the effects of term limits on political careers, on pork barrel politics, and on the effectiveness of political parties in passing their programs.

Restoration

Restoration PDF Author: George F. Will
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 143911904X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
From Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will, whose “thinking is stimulating, erudite, and makes for great reading” (The Boston Globe) comes a “biting, humorous, and perceptive” (The New York Times Book Review) argument for the necessity of term limits in Congress. The world’s oldest democracy—ours—has an old tradition of skepticism about government. However, the degree of dismay about government today is perhaps unprecedented in our history. Americans are particularly convinced that Congress has become irresponsible, either unwilling or incapable of addressing the nation’s problems—while it spends its time and our money on extending its members’ careers. Many Americans have come to believe fundamental reform is needed, specifically limits on the number of terms legislators can serve. In Restoration, George Will makes a compelling case, drawn from our history and his close observance of Congress, that term limits are now necessary to revive the traditional values of classical republican government, to achieve the Founders’ goal of deliberative democracy, and to restore Congress to competence and its rightful dignity as the First Branch of government. At stake, Will says, is the vitality of America’s great promise self-government under representative institutions. At issue is the meaning of representation. The morality of representative government, Will argues, does not merely permit, it requires representatives to exercise independent judgment rather than merely execute instructions given by constituents. However, careerism, which is a consequence of the professionalization of politics, has made legislators servile and has made the national legislature incapable of rational, responsible behavior. Term limits would restore the constitutional space intended by the Founders, the healthy distance between the electors and the elected that is necessary for genuine deliberation about the public interest. Blending the political philosophy of the Founders with alarming facts about the behavior of legislative careerists, Restoration demonstrates how term limits, by altering the motives of legislators, can narrow the gap between the theory and the practice of American democracy.

Institutions and Democracy in Africa

Institutions and Democracy in Africa PDF Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107148243
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
Offers new research on the vital importance of institutions, such as presidential term-limits in the African democratisation processes.

The Failure of Term Limits in Florida

The Failure of Term Limits in Florida PDF Author: Kathryn A. DePalo
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813055105
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
In 1992, Florida voters approved an amendment to the state’s Constitution creating eight-year term limits for legislators—making Florida the second-largest state, after California, to implement such a law. Eight years later, sixty-eight term-limited senators and representatives were forced to retire, and the state saw the highest number of freshman legislators since the first legislative session in 1845. Proponents view term limits as part of a battle against the rising political class and argue that limits will foster a more honest and creative body with ideal “citizen” legislators. However, in this comprehensive twenty-year study, the first of its kind to examine the effects of term limits in Florida, Kathryn DePalo shows nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, these limits created a more powerful governor, legislative staffers, and lobbyists. Because incumbency is now certain, leadership races—especially for Speaker—are sometimes completed before members have even cast a single vote. Furthermore, legislators rarely leave public office; they simply return to local offices, where they continue to exert influence. The Failure of Term Limits in Florida is a tour de force examination of the unintended and surprising consequences of the new incumbency advantage in the Sunshine State.