The Politics of Presidential Term Limits

Edited by Alexander Baturo and Robert Elgie

Offers a comprehensive global coverage of the topic
Presents an empirically-grounded view of presidential term limits with insights from constitutional lawyers and policy practitioners
Includes both historical and contemporary coverage

The Politics of Presidential Term Limits

Edited by Alexander Baturo and Robert Elgie

Description

Presidential term limits restrict the maximum length of time that presidents can serve in office. They stipulate the length of term the presidents can serve between elections and the number of terms that presidents are permitted to serve. While comparative scholarship has long studied important institutions such presidentialism vs. parliamentarism and the effects of different electoral systems, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the role and effects of presidential term limits. Yet presidential term limits and term lengths are one of the most fundamental institutions of democracy. By ensuring compulsory rotation in office, they are at the heart of a democratic dilemma. What is the appropriate trade-off between allowing the unrestricted selection of candidates at presidential elections vs. restricting selection procedures to prevent the possibility of dictatorial takeover by presidents who are unwilling to step down?

In the context of a long and on-going history of changes to presidential term limits and the many and varied ways in which term limits have been both applied and avoided, this book explains the factors behind the introduction, stability, abolition, and avoidance of presidential term limits, as well as the consequences of changes to presidential term limits, and it does so in the context of non-democracies, third-wave countries, and consolidated democracies. It includes comparative, theoretical, and practitioner-oriented chapters, as well as detailed country case studies of presidential term limits across the world and over time.

The Politics of Presidential Term Limits

Edited by Alexander Baturo and Robert Elgie

1:Presidential Term Limits, Alexander Baturo and Robert Elgie
2:Theorizing Presidential Rotation, Peter Stone
3:One Size Does Not Fit All: The Provision and Interpretation of Presidential Term Limits, Tom Ginsburg and Zachary Elkins
4:Term Limits and the Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendment Doctrine: Lessons from Latin America, David Landau, Yaniv Roznai, and Rosalind Dixon
5:Continuismo in Comparison: Avoidance, Extension, and Removal of Presidential Term Limits, Alexander Baturo
6:Presidential Term Limits in Latin America: ca. 1820-1985, Leiv Marsteintredet
7:Presidential Term Limits as a Credible-Commitment Mechanism: The Case of Brazil's Military Regime, Octavio Amorim Neto and Igor P. Acácio
8:The Politics of Presidential Term Limits in Mexico, Joseph L. Klesner
9:Presidential term limits in Nicaragua, David Close
10:The Politics of Presidential Term Limits in Tunisia, Alessandra Bonci and Francesco Cavatorta
11:Presidential Term Limits in Togo: Electoral Accountability Postponed, John R. Heilbrunn
12:Presidential terms in Kazakhstan: Less is More?, Dmitry Nurumov and Vasil Vashchanka
13:China: Limiting and Regularizing Top Political Power, Zhengxu Wang and Anastas Vangeli
14:Term Limits and Succession in Dictatorships, Natasha Ezrow
15:The Politics of Presidential Term Limits in Malawi, Peter VonDoepp
16:Should I Stay or Should I Go? Term-limits, elections, and political change in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, Nic Cheeseman
17:Senegal (1970-2016): Presidential Term Limit Reforms Never Come Alone, Charlotte Heyl
18:Presidential Term Limits in Burkina Faso, Sophia Moestrup
19:The Uses and Abuses of Presidential Term Limits in Russian Politics, Paul Chaisty
20:The Politics of Presidential Term Limits in the US, Michael J. Korzi
21:Presidential Term Limits in Europe, Robert Elgie
22:Term Limits in South Korea: Promises and Perils, Fiona Yap
23:The Politics of Presidential Term Limits in Argentina, Mariana Llanos
24:The Politics of Presidential Term Limits in Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, Juan Muñoz-Portillo and Ilka Treminio
25:The Politics of Presidential Term Limits in Latin America - From Redemocratization to Today, José Antonio Cheibub and Alejandro Medina
26:Presidential Term Limits in Bolivia, David Doyle
27:Presidential Term Limits and the International Community, Christina Murray, Eric Alston and Micha Wiebusch
28:Effects of Presidential Term Limits, Akisato Suzuki
29:What have we learned about presidential term limits?, Alexander Baturo and Robert Elgie

The Politics of Presidential Term Limits

Edited by Alexander Baturo and Robert Elgie

Author Information

Edited by Alexander Baturo, Associate Professor of Government, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, and Robert Elgie, Paddy Moriarty Professor of Government and International Studies, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University

Alexander Baturo is Associate Professor of Government, Dublin City University, Ireland. His research is centered on comparative democratization, leadership, and the United Nations. His articles have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, British Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, and Public Choice. His book, Democracy, Dictatorship, and Term Limits, was published by the Michigan University Press in 2014, and won the 2015 Brian Farrell prize for the best book from the Political Science Association of Ireland. He also consults for the international organisations and NGOs; his research has been cited, inter alia in the Washington Post, Bloomberg, and Tages Anzeiger.

Robert Elgie is Paddy Moriarty Professor of Government and International Studies at Dublin City University, Ireland and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). He has published numerous books, including Semi-presidentialism: Sub-types and Democratic Performance (OUP, 2011) and Political Leadership: A Pragmatic Institutionalist Approach (2018). He has published in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, British Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, and Journal of Democracy. He is the editor of the journal French Politics, which is published by Palgrave Macmillan, the Review Editor for Government and Opposition, as well as the founder and co-editor with Sona Golder and Shane Martin of the Politics of Institutions series with Oxford University Press.

Contributors:

Igor P. Acácio
Eric Alston
Octavio Amorim Neto
Alexander Baturo
Francesco Cavatorta
Paul Chaisty
Nic Cheeseman
José Antonio Cheibub
David Close
Rosalind Dixon
David Doyle
Robert Elgie
Zachary Elkins
Natasha Ezrow
Tom Ginsburg
John R. Heilbrunn
Charlotte Heyl
Joseph L. Klesner
Michael J. Korzi
David Landau
Mariana Llanos
Leiv Marsteintredet
Alejandro Medina
Sophia Moestrup
Juan Muñoz-Portillo
Christina Murray
Dmitry Nurumov
Yaniv Roznai
Peter Stone
Akisato Suzuki
Ilka Treminio
Anastas Vangeli
Vasil Vashchanka
Peter VonDoepp
Zhengxu Wang
Micha Wiebusch
O. Fiona Yap

The Politics of Presidential Term Limits

Edited by Alexander Baturo and Robert Elgie

Reviews and Awards

"Presidential term limits is a central issue worldwide. Should presidents serve only a limited number of terms to ensure rotation and that one strong individual does not threaten a country's democracy? This thorough and informative collection approaches this question from theoretical, historical, and above all empirical perspectives. Baturo and Elgie (both, Dublin City Univ., Ireland) have gathered detailed contextual case studies involving an interesting balance of older democracies (including the US) and recent democracies, and autocracies such as China.... Including comprehensive tables and figures, this volume is required reading for political scientists." - A. Siaroff, The University of Lethbridge, CHOICE