News Release

September 30, 2003

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Term Limits: Good for Democracy, Bad for Career Politicians
Repeal attempts overwhelmingly fail because they are in direct conflict with public opinion

WASHINGTON -- During the 1990s, term limits for state legislators swept the country, with 18 states restricting the number of years members can serve in a legislature. However, according to a new Cato Institute Policy Analysis, since that movement, there has been a concerted, self-serving effort by career politicians, lobbyists, and bureaucrats, to undermine the desires of the citizenry and abolish term limits.

In "Defining Democracy Down: Explaining the Campaign to Repeal Term Limits," Patrick Basham, senior fellow in Cato's Center for Representative Government, asserts that the revocation movement undermines democracy by muffling the voice of the people and protecting big-government incumbents.

Most of the term limits laws were enacted through grassroots campaigns and referendum votes. Voters recognized the benefits of term limits -- reduced special-interest influence on government spending and increased civic participation, among others -- and voted to do away with career legislators. According to Basham, the overwhelming success of these grassroots campaigns is evidence of the monumental support term limits enjoy throughout America.

That support, however, stops at the state capitol doors. Many legislatures have attempted to circumvent the desire of their constituency and do away with the term-limiting laws in an effort to protect their own jobs. Bureaucrats, who depend on the legislators for their budgets, want to repeal term limits as much as special-interest lobbyists do, because they both rely on relationships with long-term politicians for their livelihood.

So far, only Idaho has succumbed to the self-indulgent and relentless campaign to repeal term limits, and only then "by a narrow margin, trickery and tax-subsidized campaigning," as Basham explains in his paper. He also details two unsuccessful movements in California and New York City.

"Democracy is about political choice fostered by meaningful political competition," Basham writes. "A well-functioning democracy does not guarantee success in the political marketplace. It does ensure that everyone should potentially be capable of securing elected office."