Contested, Violated, but Persistent: Presidential Term Limits in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa

This Berlin Talk discussed presidential term limits in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Term limits are a constitutional rule restricting the number of terms that the president of a given state may serve, but in fact they have not always been an effective instrument to stop the president from taking office again and again. Since the 1990s, the two regions have been hit by an amendment fever that until 2019 accumulated above 100, mostly successful, reforms. The event analysed the impact of such reforms on processes of democratic erosion and autocratization.