Opting Out: Retirement from the House of Representatives

Voluntary departure from Congress through retirement is the second most common method of opening positions for new members. The susceptibility to retirement is quite predict-able. The decision to retire involves assessing one’s ability to do the job, the desirability of the job, and one’s vulnerability to involuntary departure. Statistical evidence and interview data indicate that a lessened job desirability leads to most retirement from Congress. As a source of change in the system, retirement removes some of the most conservative and least active members while umquely opening the door to the most liberal new members. Retire-ment is neither random in its antecedents nor its consequences