Word: term
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...Chile brought the king of Spain, a normally soft-spoken man, to shout, “Why don’t you shut up?” Yet Chávez will not be shutting up any time soon. On Monday, Venezuela passed a national referendum that removed term limits for public officials, allowing Chávez and his appointees to potentially remain in power for life...
...Eliminating term limits brings Venezuela further from democracy and closer to a one-party socialist dictatorship. In any country, incumbents enjoy a huge advantage in name recognition and free media coverage that puts legitimate challengers at a disadvantage. Term limits also help prevent a trend toward career politicians who can grow complacent or unresponsive to public need...
...course, term limits are not necessary for democracy to function. In the United States, it took until the 22nd Amendment in 1951 before there were term limits on the presidency, and congressmen and senators continue to face no term limits at all. Parliamentary governments like Britain potentially allow a prime minister to serve indefinitely. Often the best person for the job is one who already has the skills and experience, especially during a national crisis, as with the case of President Roosevelt during World...
...Similarly, the existence of term limits alone does not ensure free and fair elections. Few would dispute that Russia’s Vladimir Putin, despite leaving the office of the presidency because of term limits, does not still retain a great deal of control over his country...
...issue at stake is not term limits in a general sense, but the mechanism by which they were removed. It is theoretically possible to democratically eliminate term limits with a fair election; however, it would be naive to call Venezuela’s recent referendum on term limits a fair election. Though the domestic opposition has not challenged the election results, Chávez has gained such a firm grip on the media during his decade in office that he can readily warp the democratic process to suit his ambition...