The Trade-Offs of Democratic Renewal: How Electoral and Career Reforms Reshape Representation and Professionalization in Legislatures

This article examines the institutional consequences of democratic renewal reforms by analyzing Chile’s simultaneous adoption of electoral-mechanical reforms and legislative term limits. Building on ambition theory and institutional rational choice, it argues that reforms designed to enhance representation and curb political entrenchment can weaken legislative capacity by increasing fragmentation, reducing discipline, and eroding professionalization. Chile constitutes a critical case, having replaced its binomial electoral system with proportional representation, expanding both its district magnitude and assembly size in 2017, as well as introducing binding term limits for deputies and senators in 2021. Using original longitudinal data covering legislative electoral results for all elections in 1989-2025, the study finds sharp post-reform declines in reelection rates, accelerated turnover, and a reduction in average legislative experience, alongside the near-elimination of long-serving legislators and the emergence of forced retirements. It shows that electoral reforms lowered effective thresholds and intensified competition, while term limits imposed hard career ceilings, and that together these reforms produced compound effects that far exceeded their individual impacts. Although the reforms achieved their stated goals of increased pluralism and renewal, they also substantially reduced representation and expertise, raising questions regarding legislative capacity and governance. The Chilean case demonstrates that democratic renewal entails genuine trade-offs and that reforms enhancing inclusivity and turnover may simultaneously undermine conditions necessary for effective legislatures.