A constitutional or statutory cap on the number of terms, or the number of years, an officeholder may serve, most consequentially applied to a head of state or head of government. The United States imposed a two-term limit on the presidency through the 22nd Amendment, passed by Congress on 21 March 1947 and ratified on 27 February 1951, after the states responded to Franklin D. Roosevelt's unprecedented third and fourth terms, won in 1940 and 1944, by writing the previously unwritten two-term custom, observed voluntarily since George Washington, into binding constitutional text; the amendment does not apply to Harry Truman, the sitting president when Congress passed it. Term limits are argued for on the ground that a hard cap forces a transfer of power to occur on schedule rather than depend on an incumbent's willingness to step aside, an especially significant guarantee in a system without a strong tradition of peaceful transfer of power, and against, on the ground that it removes an experienced or popular leader from office regardless of continued public support and can weaken a lame duck's authority in a final term. Term limits are far from universal: most parliamentary systems impose none on a prime minister, whose tenure instead depends on retaining the confidence of the legislature, and some presidential constitutions have been amended specifically to remove or extend limits already in place.
Facts
Origin YearThe 22nd Amendment, capping the US presidency at two terms, was passed by Congress 21 March 1947 and ratified 27 February 1951; 1951 is recorded as the year the limit took binding constitutional effect. Founding ContextTerm limits cap how many times an official may be reelected to the same office, intended to prevent any one person from accumulating indefinite personal power and to encourage a regular turnover of leadership. The United States adopted a two term limit on the presidency by constitutional amendment after Franklin Roosevelt's four consecutive election victories broke the two term tradition that earlier presidents, beginning with George Washington's voluntary retirement, had observed only informally. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The 22nd Amendment imposes the two-term presidential limit.
The 22nd Amendment is part of the US Constitution.
Influenced
A binding cap on how long one leader may serve forces a transfer of power to occur on schedule rather than depend on the incumbent's consent.
Influenced By
The US 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, is a clear case of the formal amendment mechanism itself creating a presidential term limit.
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