Logrolling

Logrolling, in U.S. political history, the practice of vote trading by legislators. To ensure passage of a bill favorable to one's constituency, a legislator will offer to vote for a bill favored by another legislator; in return, the second legislator is expected to vote for some measure supported by the first. Each seeks to benefit his or her own constituency rather than the electorate as a whole. The name for this practice is derived from an 18th-century American frontier custom: Families would join together to fell trees, trim them into logs, and roll the logs to the location of a newcomer's cabin. Today the term has a derogatory connotation. See also Lobbying.