Arguments For Meaning: Pros And Cons

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|TERM LIMITS |
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|Arguments in favor… |Arguments against… |
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| |A failure by what standard? The procedures established by the Founding|
|The current Congress is a dismal failure and is desperate need of new |Fathers have served us very well for over two hundred years, thank you|
|ideas, procedures, and influence.
|very much, and have made the U.S the strongest, most prosperous |
| |country in the world. |
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|Political machines make it very difficult to remove incumbents from |The founding fathers established a system of checks and balances that |
|office. |deliberately made it difficult to remove officeholders such as judges
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| |and legislators. This was intended as a check on the people, a way of |
| |preventing “mob rule” from destabilizing the life of the nation. |
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| |Term limits kick out the good leaders who may deserve to stay in |
| |office for excellent work. |
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| |Every job has a learning curve, and Congress is no exception. Any new |
| |politicians would have to go through that when they come into office. |
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| |Politicians who leave office take with them a lot of experience and |
| |contacts that are essential to get things done. New leaders would have|
| |to develop these from scratch. |
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|Lobbyists and big-money campaign contributors usually direct their |In a 2005 study, U of I political science scholar Chris Mooney found |
|efforts at those in power, making it difficult for a new candidate to |that term limits tend to increase the power and number of lobbyists, |
|get off the ground. |and also lead them to act less ethically than would otherwise be the |
| |case, due to the lack of long-term, trust-based relationships between |
| |the parties involved. |
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|Politicians are less likely to be focused on special interests and |Quite the opposite: politicians who know that they will not have the |
|pork-barrel spending if they cannot stay in office indefinitely. |opportunity to build a long-term, financially rewarding career will be|
| |tempted to “cash in” while they still can. |
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|Lack of term limits leads to a system of seniority, meaning those who |Chris Mooney’s 2005 study, mentioned above, found that states with |
|have spent the most time in office gain more power (in committees, |term limits typically experience a massive growth in the number of |
|procedures, etc.); consequently, politicians focus on staying in |registered lobbyists, who can no longer afford to concentrate on |
|office, districts and states don't receive equal power in Congress, |committee heads and thus need larger staffs to persuade newly elected |
|and fresh new elected officials have limited ability to make changes. |officials to support their position. |
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| |Incidentally, the Founding Fathers did not intend for states to have |
| |an equal voice in the legislative process; hence the House of |
| |Representatives, wherein representation is apportioned on the basis on|
| |population. |
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|Term limits lead to a "citizen" Congress, rather than one filled with |Not true. Even if particular individuals are forced out of the office,|
|lawyers and career politicians. |the parties to which they belong will seek to replace them with people|
| |who hold the same views and will tow the party line no matter what. |
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| |In addition, a 2006 study of all fifty states (by Carey et al.) found |
| |that legislators subject to term limits are no less likely to be |
| |driven by concerns about their careers, while the overall level of |
| |professionalism decreases in term limit states. |
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| |Finally, a 2008 study by Hays and Sowa found that term limits have |
| |helped to rupture long-standing alliances between legislators and |
| |public managers, with some evidence suggesting that public agencies |
| |have high turnover and less employee security in term limit states, |
| |with a resulting deficit in agency performance. |
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|There is less chance for corruption of government officials if time in|And this lack of knowledge of basic governmental processes means that |
|office is limited; new politicians are less likely to have the |new leaders will be “flying blind,” making decisions on the basis of |
|knowledge to exploit the system for personal gain and are more |emotional and ideological rather than reason and deliberation. |
|skeptical of lobbyists and special interests. | |
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|Term limits reduce the power of the bureaucracy. |As Katherine Naff (2002) points out, once term limits are in place, |
| |fewer and fewer legislators become inclined to undertake the hard work|
| |of civil service reform, since this sort of reform takes a long time |
| |and requires a thorough knowledge of pubic human resource management. |
| |Naff’s point was seconded by |
| |John Thomas (1993), who noted that term limits could simultaneous |
| |stymie change at the lower levels of the bureaucracy, which enjoy |
| |union protections, while endangering the career of otherwise qualified|
| |public managers, who get caught in the crossfire of electoral |
| |turnover. |
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|Politicians in their last term of office are more likely to ignore |Politicians who are in the last term of office are more likely to |
|politics and media criticism to target what's best for the country, |ignore the will of the people since they don't face the wrath of the |
|and they can work to establish tangible accomplishments that will |electorate in the future. |
|build on their legacy. | |
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|Overwhelmingly, voters prefer term limits. |Individual rights, including the right of citizens to stand for public|
| |office, cannot be abrogated simply because they are unpopular. |
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|Increases competition, encourages new challengers. |New challengers require money if they are to win elections, and such |
| |money will only be forthcoming if candidates agree to follow the |
| |dictates of established political parties. |
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|Improves tendency to vote on principle. |Legislators should not be voting based on principle; they should be |
| |voting based on facts. |
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|Gets reelection rates back to near 50%, versus the current 99%. |Historically—Andrew Jackson is an example—rotation in office has |
|Founders called this "rotation in office." |resulted in am embrace of the spoils systems, whereby long-term civil |
| |servants are replaced by political insiders who may not know anything |
| |about the art of governance. |

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