The Effects of Term Limits on State Legislatures

Carey, John; Niemi, Richard G.; Powell, Lynda W.

doi:10.2307/440283

Cited by 146 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This correlates well with the finding that incumbents in their final term spend significantly less time and effort acquiring district specific benefits and pork (Carey, Niemi and Powell 1998). Besley (2006) finds that governors in their final term are significantly more congruent to the electorate, suggesting a selection effect where those governors that make it to their last term are only those that perform according to electorate standards.…”

Section: Modelsupporting

confidence: 68%

Voter Behavior and Seniority Advantage in Pork Barrel Politics

Rodet

2011

SSRN Journal

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-Abstract-This paper uses experiments to explore electoral accountability in a legislative system that favors seniority. Voters face a trade-off between pork barrel transfers and policy representation. Term limits are tested as a mechanism to reduce the cost of searching for a legislator who better represents voters on policy, as well as reducing the resulting asymmetric distribution of income. Subjects" preferences on abortion are used in an innovative means of capturing incumbents" policy choices where subject legislators vote to determine whether a donation is allocated to either a prochoice or pro-life foundation.JEL classification codes: C91, C92, D72, D89, P16

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Section: Modelsupporting

confidence: 68%

Voter Behavior and Seniority Advantage in Pork Barrel Politics

Rodet

2011

SSRN Journal

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“…Legislators are forward-looking and should anticipate the effects of term limits before they bind. This assumption has been supported by previous studies that have found that legislative behavior changes in response to term limits before term limits are actually implemented (Carey et al 1998). Secondly, the legislative session prior to term limits being implemented is the first session to contain a substantial number of legislators who are ineligible to run for office.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 76%

Legislative term limits and state spending

Erler

2007

Public Choice

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“…In fact, a recent survey of state legislators found those in term-limit states to be "more likely to possess progressive ambition" (Herrick and Thomas 2005, 726), not less. Still another recent study reported that "term limits have virtually no effect on the types of people elected to office" (Carey et al 2006, 105; see also Carey, Niemi, and Powell 1998). 12 Furthermore, as noted earlier, in my dataset there is not a statistically significant relationship between running for Congress and entering a state legislature before or after the adoption of term limits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

The Impact of State Legislative Term Limits on the Supply of Congressional Candidates

Steen

2006

State Politics Policy Q.

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Do term limits affect the probability that an incumbent state legislator will run for the United States Congress? The theory of strategic politicians suggests that by reducing legislators' opportunity costs of running for higher office, term limits should push some legislators into congressional campaigns they would have foregone had a long-term legislative career been an option. To test this hypothesis, I analyze data from congressional elections held from 1992 through 2004 in the 15 states where term limits were operative in 2004. I find that sitting state legislators who have hit the limit of their state legislative service are more likely to run for Congress than those who are eligible to serve additional terms, whether those terms are limited or not. However, there is no statistically significant difference between the congressional-candidacy rates of legislators whose re-election eligibility is limited, but not exhausted, and legislators whose terms are not limited. By increasing the supply of experienced challengers, term limits may increase competition in elections for non-term-limited offices and, consequently, the quality of representation provided by those elected.

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The Effects of Term Limits on State Legislatures

Cited by 146 publications

References 18 publications

Voter Behavior and Seniority Advantage in Pork Barrel Politics

Voter Behavior and Seniority Advantage in Pork Barrel Politics

Legislative term limits and state spending

The Impact of State Legislative Term Limits on the Supply of Congressional Candidates

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