105 Effects of Term Limits LEGISLATIVE STUDIES QUARTERLY, XXXI, 1, February 2006 105 JOHN M. CAREY Dartmouth College RICHARD G. NIEMI University of Rochester LYNDA W. POWELL University of Rochester GARY F. MONCRIEF Boise State University The Effects of Term Limits on State Legislatures: A New Survey of the 50 States Term limits on legislators were adopted in 21 states during the early 1990s. Beginning in 1996, the limits legally barred incumbents from reelection in 11 states, and they will do so in four more by 2010. In 2002, we conducted the only survey of legislators in all 50 states aimed at assessing the impact of term limits on state legislative representation. We found that term limits have virtually no effect on the types of people elected to office—whether measured by a range of demographic characteristics or by ideological predisposition—but they do have measurable impact on certain behaviors and priorities reported by legislators in the survey, and on the balance of power among various institutional actors in the arena of state politics. We characterize the biggest impact on behavior and priorities as a “Burkean shift,” whereby term-limited legislators become less beholden to the constituents in their geographical districts and more attentive to other concerns. The reform also increases the power of the executive branch (governors and the bureaucracy) over legislative outcomes and weakens the influence of majority party leaders and committee chairs, albeit for different reasons. The imposition of limits on time in office is the most significant innovation in state legislatures since the legislative modernization move- ment of the 1960s and 1970s. Currently, 15 states have term limits, ranging from a lifetime ban on service in a given chamber after as few as six years of service to as much as eight or twelve years with the possibility of endless cycling between chambers. 1 Term limits have taken effect in 12 states, beginning in 1996 in California and Maine. Most recently, Oklahoma’s term limits took effect (that is, prevented