The Test of Time: Coping with Legislative Term Limits

The Test of Time moves beyond the realm of speculation and punditry to analyze the observable and measurable effects of the early experiences of state legislature term limits. Setting the agenda for future term limits studies, this volume brings together fifteen outstanding empirical studies, contributed by top political scientists and state policymakers. Five of the essays-case studies of key states-offer depth and context for understanding the shifting institutional changes wrought by term limits at the state level. The remaining chapters develop these findings through cross-state comparisons that examine how legislatures, legislators, and political linkages-such as lobbying and electoral competition-have been affected by the imposition of legislative term limits. Supported by a comprehensive annotated bibliography of term limits literature and a history of the term limits movement, this work will be an enduring resource for academics teaching courses in state government and practitioners either experiencing term limits or preparing for term limits to take effect.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Introduction: Clues from Term Limits at Two Part 2 Experiencing Term Limits Chapter 3 California: The New Amateur Politics Chapter 4 Michigan: The End is Near Chapter 5 Maine: The Cutting Edge of Term Limits Chapter 6 Colorado: Lots of Commotion, Limited Consequences Chapter 7 Comparing Term Limits in Cities and States Part 8 Comparing Legislative Performances Across States Chapter 9 Term Limits and Legislator Performance Chapter 10 Views From the Bridge: Legislative Leaders' Perceptions of Institutional Power in the Stormy Wake of Term Limits Chapter 11 The Impact of Term Limits on Legislative Leadership Chapter 12 The Unintended Effects of Term Limits on the Career Paths of State Legislators Chapter 13 The Effects of Term Limits on Representation: Why So Few Women? Part 14 Comparing Political Linkages Across States Chapter 15 The Real Costs of Term Limits: Comparative Study of Competition and Electoral Costs Chapter 16 Term Limits Implementation in the News: Superficial or Biased? Chapter 17 Limited Citizenship? Knowing and Contacting State Legislators After Term Limits Chapter 18 Lobbying Under Limits: Interest Group Perspectives on the Effects of Term Limits in State Legislatures Chapter 19 Understanding the Term Limits Movement Part 20 Annotated Bibliography

About the Author :
Rick Farmer is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Akron and a Fellow in the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. John David Rausch, Jr. is Assistant Professor of Political Science at West Texas A&M University. John C. Green is Director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics and Professor of Political Science at the University of Akron.

Review :
Scholars and students alike will want this book for the detailed analysis of the term-limits movement and for the careful application of that analysis to legislative theories. This book pulls together all that we know and establishes where our research should move next. This is a valuable, well-designed study that provides some of the first answers about how the term limits movement of the 1990s will affect state politics in the future. The enactment of legislative term limits gave political scientists an extraordinary opportunity to study the impact of a fundamental change. The Test of Time provides an important benchmark and assessment of this change. The book is rich in case studies, comparisons across states, and evaluations of broader implications; and it provides a wonderful annotated bibliography. The book is an important contribution. The Test of TIme is an important contribution to the already considerable literature on tern limits. The editors have brought together a number of sober and carefully researched papers that should give pause to those who predicted that term limits were destined to remake America's politics, for good or ill. These important studies and an extensive annotated bibliography of previous research on term limits make this collection a good starting point for any serious future research on the topic. Highly recommended. After ten years of speculation about the effects of term limits, we now have some evidence. The contributors to this useful collection have worked systematically to produce an intriguing analysis.