Side by Side: How Long Does a Lower House Last?

On Tuesday the United States elects every seat in its House of Representatives, as it did two years ago and will again two years from now. One measure, taken from each country’s constitution or statute: the longest a lower house may sit before the voters get it back, in years, and whether anyone may end it sooner. Upper houses are left out of the count; they are the steadier furniture of any parliament.

United States

Two years. Article I says the House “shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States,” while senators sit “for six Years.” No prime minister can call an early vote; the calendar does the calling, and it calls often. Washington gives a representative two years, which works out as one year to legislate and one to apply for the job again.

Mexico

Three years. Article 51 of the constitution has the Chamber of Deputies “electos en su totalidad cada tres años,” elected in their entirety every three years, and it chooses an alternate, a suplente, for every deputy. Of the seven capitals here, Mexico City alone elects each deputy and the deputy’s replacement on one ballot. The chamber is renewed every three years and, in principle, backed up the whole time.

Australia

Three years, at most. Section 28 says every House of Representatives “shall continue for three years,” counted from its opening sitting, “and no longer,” and adds that it “may be sooner dissolved by the Governor-General.” Canberra writes the ceiling and the trapdoor into the same section. “And no longer” is the firmest phrase in any constitution here; it is followed at once by a comma and the exception.

Japan

Four years, at most. The Prime Minister’s Office states that members’ “term of office is 4 years, but shall be terminated, before the full term is up, if the House is dissolved.” The upper house, the House of Councillors, sits for 6 years with half its members elected every 3, and the page mentions no dissolution for it. Tokyo grants the four years in the opening clause of a sentence and spends the remainder explaining how to take them back.

South Korea

Four years. The government’s official summary lists an assembly of “300 members serving four-year terms,” and spends no words at all on ending them early. That is 1,200 member-years per Assembly, issued at a single election. Seoul matches Tokyo’s number and leaves out Tokyo’s sentence, which makes its four years the plainest promise on this list.

India

Five years, at most. Article 83(2) says the House of the People, “unless sooner dissolved, shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer.” It then provides that during a Proclamation of Emergency the period may be extended by Parliament by law “for a period not exceeding one year at a time,” and not beyond six months after the emergency ends. New Delhi borrows Canberra’s “and no longer,” then, alone among these seven, writes down in detail how to make it longer.

United Kingdom

Five years, at most. Section 4 of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 opens: “If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary” of its first meeting. The Act that sets the limit begins with the word “If.” Westminster’s term ends at the stroke of midnight on its birthday, so no Parliament is ever allowed to celebrate one.

Verdict

Washington returns its lower house to the voters most often of these seven, Mexico City and Canberra next, Tokyo and Seoul in the middle, London and New Delhi least. Canberra, Tokyo, New Delhi and London each write a limit and then a way out of it in the same breath; Seoul writes a number and nothing else, and New Delhi alone writes a way to stay on. Mexico City alone keeps a spare for every member. Measured by the written maximum, an Indian or British member may sit two and a half times as long as an American one before facing the voters. On Tuesday Americans elect the House that must stand again in 2028, which, in this company, counts as a long-term commitment.