That stuff just varies between countries and elected office . In Austria we used to have 4 years between parliamentary elections and recently changed it to 5 . The argument for longer terms is that it ' s more likely for the legislature to pass unpopular but necessary laws if they don ' t have to constantly think about reelection . In the US it ' s a little more complicated . While there are elections every two years , the term length of Senators is 6 years . They only reelect one third of the Senate every 2 years . I think the House is reelected in its entirety every 2 years , which I find way too short . Some presidential terms are even longer , for example France with ~~ 7 years ~~ 5 years TIL . Personally , I think 5 years is a pretty good term length for a parliament .