Sky Views: How to make the world a better place

Adam Boulton, Editor At Large

This week two long serving international leaders ran into trouble.

In Zimbabwe, 93-year-old Robert Mugabe was at last forced to resign after ruling for 30 years as President and seven years as Prime Minister before that.

In her 13th year in office, 63-year-old Angela Merkel's future as Chancellor of Germany is in doubt after talks broke down to form a coalition government with her at the head.

The predicaments of the two heads of government are vastly different of course. Merkel's CDU/CSU party organisation has come first in four successive federal elections while democracy hardly comes into it for Mugabe, who seemed to regard himself as President for life.

But I think there is a common factor to the instability now besetting both countries: both leaders stuck around too long. They've grown stale and convinced that they are indispensable while their countries find it difficult to envision life without them.

If I was "world king" (copyright. B Johnson) for a day I would introduce one simple rule to make it a better place. I would impose a binding international convention limiting a head of government's time in office to two terms or 10 years, whichever is the shortest.

Just think of the trouble that would have been avoided. Back in the late 1980s one of Mrs Thatcher's Cabinet ministers told me she'd "lost it" and should go. The Prime Minister who used to love an argument with all comers "didn't listen any more", he complained. Instead she had Cabinet minutes written to record what she wanted, not what had been discussed and agreed. Instead, Thatcher tried to go "on and on" and was forced out by waves of leadership challenges which have left the Conservative Party bitterly divided to this day.

Tony Blair could have gone quietly in 2005 without the agony of his two years of civil war with Gordon Brown which so deeply scarred the Labour Party.

The longer they stay, the more autocratic they become.

In 1991 leaders including John Major and Nelson Mandela were pleased to be hosted in Harare by Robert Mugabe at a Commonwealth summit. Back then they regarded him as a leader bringing fresh hope of modernisation to Africa. But the longer they stay, the more autocratic they become.

Africa is peppered with ageing leaders who have overstayed their welcome, including Yoweri Museveni who has been President of Uganda since 1986. In Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, now in his fourth term as Prime Minister, would be well past his sell-by date. Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president since 2005, would be out too.

The first democracies in the Greek City States and the Roman Republic had strict term limits. Consuls served in pairs and for one year only. Term limits have been a tradition in the United States since George Washington. Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the only President to have broken the two-term convention. He died in office in 1945 months after being elected for a fourth term. As a result, Congress passed the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1951 providing that "no person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice".

The important thing would be to give the leaders no choice. My proposed rule would stop the cheats like Vladimir Putin, who served two terms as President, stood down for a stint as Prime Minister, only to return for another two terms after that. Putin was another world leader who was widely welcomed as a reformer when first elected who has decayed into a near dictator. There are many other examples.

China's leader isn't elected democratically. He is chosen by the politburo of the Communist Party - they've all been men so far. But the Chinese have stuck to a strict limit of two five-year terms until now. The Chinese should be very wary of Xi Jinping's reported plan to lift the 10-year limit so he can stay in power. No good will come of it.

It may seem odd for a journalist who was a Sky Political Editor for 25 years to suggest a 10-year maximum for Prime Ministers. But reporters aren't heads of government. They don't have the same powers or the same exhausting demands.

I also think that it would be good if people who have been Prime Minister or executive President stick around to make a contribution in active politics afterwards, like the Romans. Their experience is wasted when they go off to make money or, in the UK's case, take up an unelected sinecure in the Lords. Politics shouldn't be about being the boss or nothing.

We can get the best out of our leaders in eight to 10 years. Winston Churchill only served two terms separated by one in opposition courtesy of the voters. Although they were admired in their times, nobody really wanted more of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W Bush or Barack Obama after they'd done their eight years in the Oval Office.

For each of them it was a case of "Thank you and goodbye" or, as Angela Merkel may soon find out, belated "Auf Wiedersehen, Mutti".

Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Paste BN editors and correspondents, published every morning.

Previously on Sky Views: Ian King - It's time for a land value tax