出刊年月/Date of Publishing

1986.12

所屬卷期/Vol. & No.   第16卷第4期 Vol. 16, No. 4

類型/Type                 研究論文 Research Article

篇名/Title
美國總統任期制度：論憲法修正案第22條制定的經過及其意義
The American Presidential Tenure: The Enactment and Implications of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

作者/Author
楊光中 Guang-Jong Yang

頁碼/Pagination
pp. 33-93

摘要
美國憲法修正案第22條 (The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) 係1947年第八十屆國會通過，並於1951年經全國四分之三州議會的批准後生效；文中規定無論何人當選總統，其任期不得多於兩屆。該修正案主要是針對羅斯福總統，打破美國總統歷來只任兩屆的傳統。

有一些因素足以解釋何以此修正案獲得國會及州議會一致的支持。例如:毫無限制的總統任期制，可能折損國會的地位，並且威脅到三權分立、相互制衡的政府制度。這項改革的擁護者咸認為，規範總統任期應能避免獨裁政治的孳生。羅斯福總統超乎尋常的任期相當程度地擴大了總統的行政權，這種中央集權的傾向可能威脅聯邦政體中的兩黨制度。因此٫當時的美國人民深信，他們的國家已曝露在行政權威體系毫無節制的險境之中。

此修正案一方面彌補了憲法未列總統任期之不成文法的缺口，另一方面也解決了兩任任期制是否適用於副總統繼任總統的曖昧問題上。

Abstract
The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed by the 80th Congress in 1947 and ratified by the required three­-fourths of the state legislatures in 1951, states that no President shall be elected to a third term. The Amendment responded to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s defiance of the two-term tradition.

Several factors explained why the Amendment won the support of the Congress and the state legislatures: fear that unlimited presidential tenure would weaken the position of Congress and threaten the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances. Advocates of this change believed that setting a limit to the President’s term of office would prevent dictatorship.

FDR’s long presidential tenure significantly augmented the executive powers of the President, promoting fears that this growing trend toward centralization threatened the decentralized system of federalism. The American people were convinced that the nation had been exposed to the dangers of unrestrained executive authority.

The Amendment remedies the lack of a written limit concerning the presidential tenure in the Constitution and the ambiguity or uncertainty of whether the two-term tradition would apply when a Vice-President succeeds to the Presidency.

關鍵字/Key Word
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DOI
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學門分類/Subject
政治學 Political Science