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Anne Meeker

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Would limiting all publicly elected officials to one term promote moral political action?

Particularly in the United States in the political circus leading up to the next election, more and more political actions seem to be driven by pandering to campaign contributors and radicalized voters in an effort to gain reelection. Would limiting officials to one term, and therefore hopefully encouraging them to "do the right thing" without worrying about reelection be worth their possible alienation from their constituents?

Topics: United States elections local politics morality
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    Necla Yildirim

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    Aug 12 2011: I don't have deep knowledge about US, but In some countries it would help at a certain level; It would give less chance to the dictators who appear to be stay in that positions via elections.. Staying longer in power, gives them the opportunity to put their own people in critical positions in bureaucracy and this gets worse with the every additional term.
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    Mike Myatt

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    Aug 9 2011: The imposition of term limits would just be one more bureaucratic mandate in the form of a one size fits all solution. The problem is term limits address the symptom rather than the root problem. Creating a lame duck from day one provides no incentive, other than perhaps to encourage even more self-serving acts because their would be absolutely no accountability to the electorate for their behavior. The problem isn't so much with the politicians as it is with the electorate. If we continue to re-elect politicians that don't serve their constituents then we get exactly what we deserve. Real "leadership" has no shelf life, and performance or lack thereof should determine length of service. This of course assumes an informed, active electorate willing to do their share of heavy lifting.
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    Eun A Jo 10+

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    TED Translator
    Aug 9 2011: I do not think limiting public officials to one term would encourage them to do the right thing. In fact, I imagine the opposite. I think they would consider their position less significant, and their work efficiency would drop drastically due to lack of time, consequently making it improbable to implement any visible change.

    • Anne Meeker

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      Aug 9 2011: I'm sorry, Eun, I don't quite understand your comment--why would they still be worrying about reelection if they were limited to one term? Do you think they would run for other offices, and hop around for their entire careers?
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        Eun A Jo 10+

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        TED Translator
        Aug 9 2011: Sorry for that Anne. I had misunderstood. The comment's been edited. Thanks for the notice!
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    Tim blackburn 30+

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    Aug 9 2011: i would like to see congressman to be elected up to two terms then out.
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    Chris Aldon 20+

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    Aug 9 2011: Absolutely not.
    Worrying about re-election keeps politicians from filling their own coffers, they have to answer for whatever legislation they pushed through during their term.
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