대통령 임기 제도에 관한 연구

A Study on Presidential Term

Presidential term limits are important because they affect the link between the president and voters. Elections are normally considered to be one of the most important instrument for inducing governments to act in the interests of voters. Anticipating voters' future judgment of their past performance, presidents are induced to pursue the interests of voters in order to be re-elected. It is clear that if elections are to affect the behavior of presidents at all, voters must be able to punish incumbents who perform badly by throwing them out of office and to reward incumbents who perform well by giving them another term in office. But constitutional term limits break this link by preventing voters from rewarding good incumbents. The rationale for instituting the single term system for presidents in the first place is reasonable, for such system is meant to prevent incumbents from taking advantage of their position in order to remain in power. But there is no evidence that is available suggests that presidents do indeed have a large advantage when they are legally permitted to run for re-election. Even if we agree that the incumbency advantage of presidents needs to be tamed, the single term system for presidents may be too blunt an instrument because it fundamentally interferes with the relationship between voters and presidents and preempts the possibility that elections may operate as mechanisms of political accountability. Finally, I think that we need a constitutional amendment allowing presidents to serve two four-year terms instead of the current single five-year term.