Term limits, electoral competition, and representational diversity: The case of Florida

    Authors

    S. Schraufnagel;K. Halperin

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    State Polit. Policy Q.

    Keywords

    Political Science

    Abstract

    The article assesses two predictions made by term limits advocates: that term limits would increase electoral competition and enhance demographic representation in state legislatures. Although term limits may indeed have these consequences in some places and some times, their early effects in Florida do not provide support for these predictions. Our analysis suggests that state legislative seats that have opened up as the result of term limits yielded races with no smaller margins of victory than in previous elections, nor were they more likely to be contested by the two major political parties. Likewise, we found no significant increase in the representation of minorities or women in the Florida State Legislature after term limits.

    Journal Title

    State Politics & Policy Quarterly

    Volume

    6

    Issue/Number

    4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2006

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    448

    Last Page

    462

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000202986000005

    ISSN

    1532-4400

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