Term Limits - Good or Bad for Citizens?

Term limits are provisions in constitutions or charters, or legislation, that say that no person can hold an office more than a certain number of times, even if he or she wants to and his or her voters want to reelect that person.

Term limit proposals are the result of people's frustration with government bodies that they feel are not doing a good job. But do term limits bring about better results for citizens? They have been around for about 20 years so there is significant scholarly research about them, and that research indicates that term limits do not accomplish what their proponents say they will.

The main benefit is supposed to be to get rid of career politicians who are "bad," and replace them with citizen-legislators who truly care about the people. That sounds good, but over the course of about 20 years in states with term limits (several states had term limits and repealed them) there seems to be no improvement in the quality of legislators and their service to the people.

Still, the frustration of citizens with governments that they feel are not doing a good job will probably continue to lead to efforts to have term limits. It would be good if before voting for them, people examined the facts about what has happened in places where term limits have been imposed to see if they accomplish the goals stated for them.