Term Limits

Paper Summary:

Term limits have been and continue to be one of the most hotly debated political concepts in the United States. Republican senators tend to view senatorial term limits with a jaundiced eye; the drive for congressional term limits has mainly come from the House. This paper shows that senators have imposed term limits on committee chairmanships of three two-year terms for a full-committee chair, but it seems highly improbable that senators will ever voluntarily adopt limits on their actual tenure in office. The paper argues that senatorial term limits are not within the domain of the politically possible; the backers of such a notion are engaging in a rather quixotic waste of time.

From the Paper:

"Clearly, Madison did not envision the situation we have today, a situation in which, due to the growing influence which the ability to raise money has on elections, the advantages of incumbency have become such as to give sitting Senators what almost amounts to a de facto lifetime tenure. It is not unheard of for a sitting Senator to lose an election, but it is highly unusual. As Welton notes, until the age of industrialization the notion of a person making a "career" of office holding was both suspect and something of an exception in this country (9)."

More papers on Term Limits:

• Argumentative Essay # 52716 : "Term Limits"
• Research Proposal # 148251 : "Presidential Term Limits"
• Argumentative Essay # 225 : "Congressional Term Limits"

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