Navigating Term Limits

“Jordan Butcher has gathered and analyzed voluminous data on term limits to figure out how they impact the way legislative chambers operate and how lawmakers navigate their careers. This book is a timely and important contribution to our understanding of term limits.” —Peverill Squire, Professor of Political Science, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA “Dr. Butcher’s four original datasets explore the effects of both lifetime and consecutive year limits on legislative careers, bill passage and legislative leadership across 20 years and 17 states…This book is a tour de force of state legislative research. “ —Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson, Professor of Political Science, Wayne State University, USA “Dr. Jordan Butcher’s book is a must read for any current, former or aspiring lawmaker and anyone interested in the public policy arena…I’ve read many articles, publications, and other books and this is one of the only comprehensive comparative works that addresses the broad impact of term limits.” -—Shane Broadway, Former Speaker of the Arkansas General Assembly, USA This book considers whether term limits help curb careerism in the US state legislatures. Term limits are popular among the public and have been overwhelmingly successful once on the ballot. Despite this, very little is known about the long-term effects of these institutional rules. If term limits were sold to the public to remove entrenched incumbents from office, how do they alter the careers of legislators and what are the implications? Butcher suggests that term limits do not end careers but instead, lawmakers have become more creative in their pursuits. She finds that the presence of term limits has created a new career system unique to those states that have limits. In each chapter, there is a quantitative analysis, followed by qualitative interviews to better understand the underlying motivations of members. Jordan Butcher is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Arkansas State University, USA. Her research in state legislative politics lies at the intersection of intuitional design and political careerism.