The Pros And Cons Of Term Limits In Office

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Name: Sydney Levine Course: POS2041 Date: 04/02/15 The Pros and Cons of Term Limits in Office The issue of term limits, which could be easier, understood as the mandatory restrictions on the time horizon that Congress members should remain in office, has been a public debate for decades and centuries. Different political experts have held different positions concerning the issue. Some are for the idea that office limits are healthy and others continue to argue that they are not healthy, particularly to the economic development of a region. Experts that support term limits see them as a way of solving the potential problem of corruption while the opponents argue that being a congressional representative is a career for a lifetime, just like…show more content…
Political experts argue that leaders would want to stay in office as much as possible depending on their motives. Some have desire for power while others perceive the positions as a platform to achieve their noble desires (Kousse 46). With term limits, all leaders are treated equally, thus helping to achieve a lame duck political status. It refers to a phenomenon where a member is not allowed to be reelected whether he or she is willing or not. Once a leader’s time in office elapses, he or she is supposed to pave way for the next leader that citizens will vote for. Citizens in this case, are well informed that they are not supposed to reelect a leader for more that the allowed terms. However, if a leader has been in office for a term and maybe the ruling principle is that leaders are allowed to be in office for not more than two terms and is not reelected he or she has no alternative but to leave. Term limits are therefore an effective platform for voters to air their voices, as stated earlier in the…show more content…
Since they will never experience the electorate’s wrath in the future, they tend to ignore the people’s will. They take advantage of the situation as depending on whether they serve the people or not, they will never be in the race of elections seeking for power. Term limits also challenge the level of government expertise. For proper legislation and appropriate policies to be formulated members of the legislature need to have certain levels of expertise, which are dependent on the learning curve of their jobs. With term limits, it implies that members of the legislature usually do not have enough time to be engaged in several legislature sessions. New members are therefore, expected to learn of the legislature processes and sessions before developing other new policies and procedures. They also have to spend inordinate time durations to learn the existing procedures and policies (Crane 24). Generally, time limits challenge the level of expertise of federal governments. Lastly, term limits limit the impact of incumbent benefits on challengers. Elected leaders who have stayed in office for a good period are recognized and well known. They therefore enjoy the electoral advantage in cases of fundraising and

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