document: Proposals to limit the terms of members of Congress and of state legislators are popular and getting more so , according to the pundits and the polls . Students of government like me find it hard to understand why . Contrary to most of the propaganda on the subject , these constitutional changes wo n't do what their proponents say they want to accomplish . For example , term limitations will not decrease the influence of interest groups and their money on elections . Quite the contrary . Forcing senior members of a legislature to retire means that the new candidates who try to take their place will have to invest heavily in achieving the name recognition that the veterans already have . This will require large new infusions of money and electoral alliances with interest groups who can supply it . Veteran members -- proven vote-getters -- are much more powerful in relation to special interests than candidates who have to prove themselves in an uncertain and expensive campaign environment . Term limitations wo n't improve the functioning of the legislature , either . People need time to learn their jobs . Term limitations throw away the benefits of learning from experience . Inexperienced legislators are less powerful in relation to legislative staff , executive branch bureaucrats and interest-group lobbyists from whom they must learn the customs and routines of legislative operations and the stories behind policy proposals . New people in any complex institution are highly dependent on the people around them . Term limitations just shift power from elected officials to the relatively inaccessible officials , bureaucrats and influence peddlers who surround them . Why do we assume that new blood is automatically better than old ? Of course we should pay attention to the quality of our legislators and vote against those whose performance we find wanting . Term limits merely guarantee that the good will disappear along with the bad . Finally , term limitations wo n't enhance representative democracy . Just the opposite , since they create an artificial barrier preventing voters from returning to office legislators they might otherwise favor . Why are we so certain that voters have such terrible judgment that they need a constitutional restriction keeping them from voting for incumbents they know and like ? It is hard to see how restricting voters ' alternatives in this arbitrary way can be proposed in the name of representative government or of democracy . One must conclude that other forces are at work . More likely , groups and interests that now have a hard time winning against incumbents are seeking term limitations to improve their chances of winning office . They are undoubtedly calculating that non-incumbents are easier to beat , or buy . They 're probably right about that .
extractive_keyphrases: term limitations term limits state legislators constitutional changes interest groups electoral alliances constitutional restriction representative democracy