Democracy Among Strangers: Relationships between Term-Limited Legislators in Michigan.

Based on a five-year panel study of the Michigan House of Representatives, this investigation explores the impact of term limits on four relationships between legislators: influence, friendships, consulting about a politically salient issue and consulting about a technical issue. We found that overall the number of people described as influential declined, but those that were named were primarily those in positions of formal leadership. Surprisingly we found that friendships did not decline with an influx of newcomers, but cross-party friendships did decline. Finally, we found that hubs or key consultants emerged in both vote cuing networks, but especially around the technical issue. We argue that some impacts of term limits depend on the number of newcomers, but others reflect institutional changes in the term-limited legislature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]