Term limitation helps democracy Last of three parts.

Term limitation - the movement to give walking papers to elected officials who would make a career of public service - is gaining in momentum.

Following a mid-September victory in Oklahoma, where voters limited terms of state legislators to 12 years, the next tests will be in Colorado and California, where term-limitation issues are on the Nov. 6 ballots. Victory is likely in both places.

But term limitation has many faces. That's why I think it is important not to confuse the 1990s term-limitation movement with the anti-government theme that dominated much of the 1970s and 1980s.

The earlier theme included the anti-taxation, anti-government Proposition 13 movement in California, Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign and Ronald Reagan's decade-long, losing battle against expanding government.

The anti-government approach appealed to voters alienated by Watergate and Vietnam, but it hit the wall of pragmatism.

The fact is, Americans want safe streets, schools that teach, courts that convict, clean air and water, and some place to put toxic wastes. Americans want a government that works, that will live within its means by balancing the budget

Today's term-limitation movement is not an anti-government movement. Term limitation is an anti-establishment protest against incompetence in the government.

Term-limitation is a movement born of disgust with self-serving campaign finance rules, perks, and gerrymandering of election districts that gives incumbents extraordinary advantages on election day.

Term limitation is a movement that disdains the fact that in 1990, nearly one out of five members of Congress is running unopposed by a major-party candidate because the deck is stacked against challengers.

The remaining incumbents have access to grotesque amounts of money from PACs and other sources to overpower the opposition with TV ads and other tricks of the campaign trade.

Another important aspect of term limitation is its motivation. Some supporters of term limitation are motivated by a Jeffersonian anti-incumbency theme. Others are motivated by a desire to see a more competitive election system.

However, both groups end up in the same place: Democracy thrives on turnover in high places. Longevity breeds corruption. Careerism breeds arrogance. A healthy democracy requires a high kill ratio on election day.

"Want to stump a career politician?" the joke goes, "Ask him (or her) the price of a loaf of bread or the cost of an automobile tuneup."

The increasing demand for accountability is not limited to politics. It is a cultural phenomenon.

It made Roger and Me, which revealed the vacuousness, arrogance and amateurism at the top of General Motors, the year's most popular documentary. It made Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens' book, Boone, a business best-seller. Business leaders should take notice as well.