Ancient Athens Counted Terms First
Long before modern elections, ancient Athens already limited how long people could hold power. Many officeholders there were allowed a single term. Council members could serve two terms at most. One office broke the pattern. The post of strategos could be held again and again, with no limit at all.
The Roman Republic took the idea further. A law limited the office of censor to a single term. Yearly officials, including the consul, could not be reelected until a number of years had passed. Even the dictator, an office with nearly unlimited power, had one firm rule: a single six-month term.
That rule did not last. Successive Roman leaders weakened it until Julius Caesar became dictator for life, and the republic came to an end. It was an early sign that a limit only works if people keep it.
Two-Month Jobs in Medieval Republics
Term limits came back in medieval Europe, in city republics like Novgorod, Pskov, Genoa and Florence. Novgorod shared power between an elected prince and an elected posadnik, a kind of mayor. By the mid-14th century, that office was held by six people elected for life. From among them, a chairman was picked for one year, a term later cut to just six months.
Genoa elected its leader, the doge, for a single two-year term, a rule that ran from 1528 to 1798. Florence went even shorter. Members of its executive council served terms of only two months.
The first modern constitutional term limit came with France's Constitution of 1795. It set five-year terms for the French Directory and banned back-to-back terms. Napoleon ended that in 1799, much as Julius Caesar had once done in Rome. A new French constitution brought limits back in 1848, and Napoleon's nephew, Napoleon III, abolished them again.
An Unwritten Rule Becomes Law
In the Americas, an early version of the idea goes back to 1682. William Penn's Charter of Liberties for Pennsylvania set up a three-year rotation for the Provincial Council, the upper house of the colony's legislature.
For a long time, United States presidents followed an informal tradition of serving only two terms. No law required it. Then Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a third term, and then a fourth. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution finally made the two-term limit law in 1951.
Latin American countries modeled their presidencies on the United States in the 19th century and copied the two-term rule. When some presidents overstayed, several countries switched to a single term with no reelection at all. In Mexico, Porfirio Díaz ran for eight terms before going into exile in 1911. A new constitution in 1917 set a one-term limit. Today the President of Mexico serves one six-year term, known as the sexenio.
A King With a Term Limit
Term limits usually make people think of presidents, but Malaysia applies one to its king. The King of Malaysia serves a single five-year term, and the job rotates among the country's monarchs. That makes Malaysia one of only two constitutional monarchies in the world with a term limit. The other is Andorra, where the President of France serves as one of its co-princes.
Countries with a parliamentary system rarely limit their leaders. Such leaders often have no set term at all. They stay as long as parliament backs them, which could in theory last for life.
Limits come in two main types. With a consecutive term limit, a person must step aside after a set number of terms, but after a while the clock resets and they can run again. A lifetime limit is much stricter. Once someone reaches the cap, that office is closed to them for good.
The Art of Overstaying
A limit is only as strong as the will to respect it. A 2020 analysis found that nearly one in four leaders facing a term limit try to get around it. The most common route is changing the constitution, especially when the leader's party controls the legislature. Other tricks include asking the courts to reinterpret the rule, writing a whole new constitution, delaying or cancelling elections, or letting a stand-in take over while the old leader still governs in practice.
Between 1960 and 2010, more than a quarter of term-limited presidents managed to extend or break their limits. Still, such attempts usually meet strong resistance, both at home and on the world stage.
Some places tell the opposite story. Nigeria's 1999 constitution limits its president and state governors to two four-year terms, and the rule has been strictly followed ever since. Mo Ibrahim even created a prize with cash attached to encourage African leaders to support democratic handovers of power.
