Electoral Competition and Term Limits

• In Event: Elections and Electoral Systems

Abstract

I analyze the impact of term limits in a model of electoral competition on both ability
and policy platforms. At baseline, politicians facing weak competition extract rents,
and strong incumbents deter challenger entry. Term limits alleviate these problems
in two ways. First, they create open elections which encourage entry. Second, they
insulate voters' future payoffs from the current election, which weakens the bargaining position of strong incumbents. The model also sheds light on the optimal structure of term
limits. In particular, stochastic term limits may be optimal when voters are patient.

Author

• Germán Sergio Gieczewski, Princeton University