LOGROLLING IN THE US CONGRESS

Does exchange, i.e., vote trading, occur in legislatures? If so, is it quantitatively important or optimal? How important are political part ies for the organization of logrolling coalitions? To address these qu estions, this paper investigates a broad range of votes where logrolli ng has been reported among interests favoring subsidies for urban, lab or and farm interests. The findings suggest that logrolling agreements are widespread, that many Democratic congressmen changed votes becaus e of logrolling agreements, and that the Democratic party served to fa cilitate logrolling between its members. Furthermore, logrolling coali tions exhibited a strong degree of stability.