- Wouldn't it make more sense if politicians (legislators/congress folks mostly) had shorter careers and then went in to the field of law afterward, rather than studying law in order to become a politician? I think it would make our laws easier to understand, plus the ex-pol lawyers would be able to say, "I wrote that law Mr./Mrs. Judge, I think I know how it's supposed to be interpreted."
I suppose I'm biased on the subject though, because I've always thought politicians should limit their terms. I think the upside would be decreased corruption and a more involved public (because we'd need to fill the vacancies). Possible downsides include less effective legislation and oversight.
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Welcome to the blog, Sam.
I think your suggestion is interesting. I generally like the idea of limiting terms; however, I think several other things would probably need to change.
I had a professor during college who used to say that the United States of America had only one political party. That party was The American Bar Association because you pretty much had to be a lawyer to hold office. He's generally right, I think. It would be interesting to see numbers on how many legislators actually used their law degrees to practice law before they became politicians. Most politicians do not practice law after they have held office, as Sam pointed out. They either hold their positions until they die/retire, change positions, or get voted out. Those politicians that lose their seats seem to easily find jobs working for lobbying firms or other large consultant agencies. I think this is a problem, one that might be solved by Sam's suggestion because the power of legislators would be limited and lobbying firms wouldn't want to pay out the big bucks for just any old legislator. Maybe this would actually encourage more ex-politicians to practice law. It might also lower the mean age of legislators, maybe a good thing.
Naturally, people interested in law are most likely to pursue careers in making laws, but I wish this would change. I wish we had more representation from other career fields. Come on, Harry Truman was a hat maker before he was president. Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer. Gerald Ford was a fish monger (well, that isn't true, but if it were it would certainly strengthen my argument). What if we didn't allow lawyers to hold legislative office? Or rather, as Sam is maybe suggesting, what if you couldn't be a lawyer until you had been a politician?
Aside: I studied political science. Woodrow Wilson remains the only president to have a PH.D and the only president that was a political scientist. He also invented the submarine (this is also untrue).
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