Anticipatory Effect

Forgette Richard, Garner Andrew, and Winkle John. “Do redistricting principles and practices affect US state legislative electoral competition? State Politics and policy quarterly, 20(9) (2009): 151 175.

When the United States was founded, the theme behind the new government was to establish an efficient system without doling out too much power to any one person. The Founders intended to prevent a rebirth of tyranny, which they had just escaped by breaking away from England. However, when members of Congress such as Tom Foley, who served as a Representative from 1964 through 1995, and Jack Brooks, who served as a Representative from 1952 through 1994, remain in the legislative system for over forty years, it is evident that tyranny has not necessarily been eradicated from the United States (Vance, 1994, p. 429). Term limits are a necessity to uphold the Founders’ intentions, to prevent unfair advantages given to incumbents, and to

John Dingell, a member of the United States House of Representatives, served fifty-nine years and twenty-one days at this position. With no term limits set for the federal legislative positions in the United States, is this representation becoming redundant? Term limits can potentially be crucial in political reform of the United States that would bring new perspectives to federal legislative positions, warrant regular federal legislative turnover, and reduce incentives for wasteful election-related federal spending. Term limits can also pervert the entire understanding of what democracy is, by substituting the people’s will with term limits that may go against what the people want. United States federal legislative term limits have previously

As mentioned previously, Proposition 140 was not just simply a bill to enact term limits to state legislatures but one of reducing the expenditures to the legislatives staff. Prior to Proposition 140, California had enjoyed relatively large legislative staffs and nonpartisan organizations, such as The Legislative Analyst’s Office. After the passing of Proposition 140, legislative costs of the state had to be reduced significantly, with The Legislative Analyst’s Office and the Assembly and Senate Research greatly reducing their staff, with The Legislative Analyst’s Office in particular reducing its staff from 98 to 43 during the first two years alone (Robinson, pg.8). Funding aside, term limits have also negatively impacted the legislative staff that remained. One challenge that legislative staffs now face is job instability. In contrast to the long-time incumbents of the past that would guarantee a long-term job, staff are now highly susceptible to short-term jobs that could range anywhere from a single term bosses to 14 year ones. Another challenge that staff face is their new roles in the relation with legislators. With current turnover rates of legislators, staff are now burdened with the responsibility of teaching legislators about the daily operations of the legislature. Where as in the past, legislators could rely on there long time careers as

As a remedy to the issues in Congress, term limits should be implemented in the US Congress because they can prevent corruption and provide turnover in Congress. Throughout the years, working as a Congressman has become

The inter workings of Congress have been studied extensively by Richard Fenno and David R. Mayhew. Mayhew’s study of Congress took place in Washington, while Richard Fenno conducted his research by following politicians within their congressional district. Mayhew attributes three primary goals to congressmen- getting reelected, achieving influence within Congress and making “good Policy”. Fenno also attributes three basic goals, having influence inside the House than other congressmen. Second, helping their constituents and thereby insuring their reelection, and lastly helping make good policy. The purpose of this paper is to research a member of Congress and to make a direct connection between his activity in Washington and his home district. The paper will answer whether the congressmen is a delegate or trustee. Are the actions a pursuit for reelection? Are the committee assignments a path for movement within the House or outside? What legislation has he/she sponsored or co-sponsored and does it directly reflect his/her districts political view. And finally, do major industries and interest groups within his/she district affect the way he/she votes.

If Congress should have term limits or not has been a long debated question that is suggested as an amendment to the qualifications division of the Constitution. There are outstanding arguments on both side of the issue 5; unconstitutionality versus limiting power and mixture versus seniority are just a few. Term limits are requirement to upload the founder’s objectives, to inhibit unfair advantages given to resident, and to permit an assembly of additional benefits. Opponents of term limits have said in today’s world we need men and women to represent them in congress and term limits which will remove legislators when the start to become useful to constituents.

First, congress salaries are very heavily bashed on by the public. An average congress member attains a salary just shy of $100,000. Many members of congress start off making roughly $80,000-$90,000 annually. Therefore, an abundance of people argue that their salary is too high. Although they have a decent salary to sit on, they aren’t overly wealthy. In contrast, members may work their way up in power, yet don’t generate much of a raise other than a few thousand annually. Back when the constitution was being formed, many of our nation’s top builders predicted a president leading the USA. Granted the president description was extremely vague, we soon realized how powerful presidency and high powers truly are. After several presidencies and wars, among other awry events, we quickly discovered the roles and objectives of these political leaders. Furthermore, the role of presidency has been altered greatly over the course of time. The separation of power ultimately led to the creation of a two-party system. Lastly, the issue of re-election arises. Re-election rates have generated a fair amount of complaints among American’s. The idea of limiting terms for congress members has become a common thought. If this followed through, it may generate mixed feelings for our country. Everybody has different stances on our nation’s higher powers, but perception is critical, depending on the

Term limits are a powerful political force and a vital political reform. The movement to limit political terms and thus political power has been steamrolling through American politics for years. Many American citizens have approved term limits for Congressmen, moreover many states and hundreds of cities and counties across the United States have adopted term limits for state and local officials. Such widespread support of the phenomena shows that the public is not satisfied with the prevalent careerism and thinks that amendments to the federal legislature would be beneficial for the Congress and the country as a whole. The below paper will present objective political arguments for and against the Congressional term limits. Firstly, the arguments for the term limits will be presented, the arguments against them will proceed, followed by the conclusion drawn by the author based on the conducted research.

The Term Limits and the 1974 Budget Reform are the two reflections for week five. There has been a great debate concerning term limits. Term limits are considered to be the key point in rebuilding the relationship between the government and U. S. citizens. American citizens has lost faith in their government, because the citizens feel they are not represented, but the officials are focused on benefiting themselves. However, term limits can remove good leaders out, who may deserve to stay in office for a longer period of time. “As the authors states that “political bodies do not experience they need when there are limits on how long they can be in office. It also may keep qualified individuals from running for office” (Lee, Johnson and

We see that the passage of these initiatives affected the ability of the legislature to create important policies. Proposition 140 is a reform initiative that drastically changed the fundamentals of the legislative system. This proposition halted the cycle of institutional knowledge for legislators who become experts in certain policies. They are barred from running for office once the term limit is fulfilled. In the bigger picture, legislative committee leaders are sometimes new legislators who do not have expertise in the policy. This is problematic because lack of expertise hinders the creation of innovative and effective policy. Proposition 140 created a better over turn thus, giving minorities and women the chance to represent their constituents; the point of the term limit was to repopulate the legislature. By creating this constant repopulation, it allows expertise to be achieved by legislators but it bars them to contribute into policy making once their term limit is achieved. Proposition 118 on the other hand intends to change the composition of the legislature but makes it harder for redistricting to occur. By passing Proposition 118, the legislature will not be able to represent the people of California accurately; thus, creating policy problems since enacted policies will not

In 2009, term-limits imposed on legislators were a total of 14 years; legislators were allowed two terms in the Senate (8 years), three terms in the Assembly (6 years). In 2012, Proposition 28 reduced the term-limits on legislators to 12 years total, but allowed them to spend their time in either one house or split their time between the two (Vechten, 2015). Proposition 28 was established with the intent to “stabilize a legislature that has been wracked by rapid membership turnover every two years, because lawmakers would be allowed to accumulate experience in one place and would not be itching to jump into the next office whenever it became available (Vechten, 2015).” Term limits have affected almost every aspect of California’s legislative life, and have ranged from both positive and negative. Some of the advantages of California’s term limits are that the higher number of available seats has encouraged the increased participation from ethnic minorities and women. As of mid-2013, 40 percent of legislators are Latino, African American, or Asian American (Vechten, 2015). Additionally, there have been unprecedented numbers of women in office. The higher turnover causes diversity of new legislators, and with new legislators, they bring new ideas. Newer legislators have experienced the “effects of current laws in their districts and have fresh ideas about how to address problems arising from them (Vechten, 2015).” However, there exists some disadvantages to term limits. The higher turnover and term limits have caused the loss of expertise in a range of policy areas. Term limits have caused legislators to usually stay in one area of politics, usually spending all their time in one of the two houses, instead of risking losing their seat to run for the other chamber. Additionally, long-term, comprehensive lawmaking will suffer since the

As the election approaches, it’s significant to understand the responsibilities of state senators. A conscientious senator can bring numerous remarkable prospects for the state and people. Otherwise, people will suffer from various inconveniences. In the United States, state senators are officials who represent their own districts within the states. In most states, state senators are required to serve in the house of the state government’s legislature and one role in common is state senators must represent their districts’ residents. For representing the constituents, the state senators need to listen and read the emails and letters which express the constituents’ opinions. Next, the state senators should attend to constituents. They can talk to constituents, give public speeches and provide official updates. Although state senators are not required to propose legislation, they treat it as their responsibilities in order to benefit the constituents. Considering with the basic benefits and future of the state and people, I

Due to the hyperpastrsian era that Congress has been subject to, a bill simply advocating for transparency in election funding was rejected. However, it's important to examine the utility and durability of the bill if it would have been passed under these specific circumstances. Adler and Wilkerson hold that there certain factors at the time of legislation passage that will predict whether or not it will be amended in the future. The factors that have been proven to be statistically significant are: whether or not the government was divided at the time of passage, if there were subsequent chamber differences, mood of the policy, the complexity of the law, and whether or not it pertains sunset provisions(Adler and Wilkerson 178). Looking at

The consequences of federal pork barreling are today's public opinions of Congress. Voters express a sixty percent approval rating of their own personal representatives. However, voters opinion of Congress as a