term limits
I think term limits would hamper development of long term relationships with lobbyists, and similar and in turn reduce the occurrence of these trades.
I think term limits would hamper development of long term relationships with lobbyists, and similar and in turn reduce the occurrence of these trades.
It’s possible that were politicians only in seat for a short period, some of them would succumb to the incentive to “make the most of it” personally. Since this would leave lobbyists as the most “senior” people on Capitol Hill with the most experience managing these interactions, they’d be able to optimize for providing lucrative payouts to these short-timer politicians.
I’m not saying this is guaranteed, just that there are incentives toward that outcome and also that experience gives power in “repeated game” scenarios. A converse example of this is the lifetime appointment for judges, ensuring them stability to help minimize the appeal of maximizing short-term gains.
Additionally, however you feel about established lawmakers, the current multi-term career lawmakers are very familiar with the process of making laws. If there's a higher proportion of new lawmakers, then the people most familiar with the process of making laws would be the lobbyists. That could result in them having a larger influence on the whole process.
The balance is that newer lawmakers are potentially less corrupted from decades in the system. It's not easy to say what the net result would be.