Term Limits

Term limits regulate the number of terms permitted in office, restricting the maximum length of tenure that can be served by a political actor. More generally, term limits refer not only to the eligible number of terms but also to the length of each term, as well as whether such terms can be consecutive. The majority of democratic regimes restrict their political leaders to one or two terms in office while many—not all—partly democratic and nondemocratic regimes do not impose limits on the number of such terms. Also, even though in presidential democracies term limits are almost always in place at the level of national leadership, there are often no limits on the number of terms for other political actors, for example, members of parliament ...