Often political races are not really competitive, and the path to reelection is smooth for many incumbents. In two-candidate races for office we suggest the introduction of a new re-election rule, which we call the “Score-replication Rule.” This rule requires that, to be reelected, any incumbent has to obtain a percentage of votes that is at least as high as the highest vote-share he/she obtained in any previous election (reduced by some margin). Such a delimiter would restrain negative “incumbency advantages,” and render reelection competitive again. It could also reduce polarization in the United States Congress. Moreover, we suggest how history-bound reelections could be used in European-style proportional election systems.

中文翻译：

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受历史约束的连任

政治种族通常没有真正的竞争力，对于许多现任者来说，连任之路是平坦的。在两个候选人的竞选中，我们建议引入新的连任规则，我们称之为“分数复制规则”。该规则要求重新选择，任何现任者必须获得至少高度的投票百分比，这些投票是他/她在任何之前的选举中获得的最高投票（减少了一些边际）。这样的分隔符将抑制负面的“在职优势”，并使连任再次具有竞争力。它还可以减少美国国会的两极分化。此外，我们建议如何在欧洲风格的比例选举制度中使用受历史约束的连任。