Logrolling - Concept and Origin

Concept and Origin

There are three types of logrolling: logrolling within a Direct Democracy, Implicit Logrolling, and Distributive Logrolling. When logrolling occurs within a Direct Democracy, a few individuals vote openly, and votes are easy to trade, rearrange, and observe. Direct Democracy is pervasive in representative assemblies and small-government units. The second form is Implicit Logrolling, where large bodies of voters decide complex issues and trade votes without a formal vote trade (Buchanan and Tullock 1962). Implicit Logrolling is characteristic of the modern democratic process. Distributive Logrolling, the final type of logrolling, enables policymakers to achieve their public goals. These policymakers logroll to ensure that their district policies and pork barrel packages are put into practice— regardless of whether their policies are actually efficient (Evans 1994 and Buchanan and Tullock 1962). Distributive Logrolling is the most prevalent kind of logrolling found in a democratic system of governance.

Quid pro quo, sums up the concept of logrolling in the United States’ political process today. Logrolling is the process by which politicians trade support for one issue or piece of legislation in exchange for another politician’s support, especially by means of legislative votes (Holcombe 2006). If a legislator logrolls, he initiates the trade of votes for one particular act or bill in order to secure votes on behalf of another act or bill. Logrolling means that two parties will pledge their mutual support, so both bills can secure a simple majority. For example, when a vote on behalf of a tariff is traded by a congressman for a vote from another congressman on behalf of an agricultural subsidy to ensure that both acts will gain a majority and pass through the legislature, logrolling occurs (Shughart 2008). Logrolling will not occur during presidential elections, where a vast voting population necessitates that individual votes have little political power, or during secret ballot votes (Buchanan and Tullock 1962). Because logrolling is pervasive in the political process, it is important to understand which external situations determine when, why, and how logrolling will occur, and whether it is beneficial, efficient, or neither.

American frontiersman Davy Crockett was one of the first to apply the term to legislation:

The first known use of the term was by Congressman Davy Crockett, who said on the floor (of the U.S. House of Representatives) in 1835, "my people don't like me to log-roll in their business, and vote away pre-emption rights to fellows in other states that never kindle a fire on their own land."

The widest accepted origin is the old custom of neighbors assisting each other with the moving of logs. If two neighbors had cut a lot of timber which needed to be moved, it made more sense for them to work together to roll the logs. In this way, it is similar to a barn-raising where a neighbor comes and helps a family build their barn, and, in turn, that family goes and exchanges the favor, helping him build his.

Here is an example of the term's original use:

"A family comes to sit in the forest," wrote an observer in 1835. "Their neighbors lay down their employments, shoulder their axes, and come in to the log-rolling. They spend the day in hard labor, and then retire, leaving the newcomers their good wishes, and an habitation.