Pork barrel is the
appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district. The usage originated in
American English. In election campaigns, the term is used in derogatory fashion to attack opponents. Scholars, however, use it as a technical term regarding legislative control of local appropriations.
History
The term
pork barrel politics usually refers to spending which is intended to benefit
constituents of a
politician in return for their political support, either in the form of
campaign contributions or votes. In the popular 1863 story "The Children of the Public",
Edward Everett Hale used the term
pork barrel as a homely metaphor for any form of public spending to the citizenry.After the
American Civil War, however, the term came to be used in a derogatory sense. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the modern sense of the term from 1873. By the 1870s, references to "pork" were common in Congress, and the term was further popularized by a 1919 article by Chester Collins Maxey in the
National Municipal Review, which reported on certain legislative acts known to members of Congress as "pork barrel bills". He claimed that the phrase originated in a pre-Civil War practice of giving slaves a barrel of salt pork as a reward and requiring them to compete among themselves to get their share of the handout.More generally, a barrel of
salt pork was a common
larder item in 19th century households, and could be used as a measure of the family's financial well-being. For example, in his 1845 novel
The Chainbearer,
James Fenimore Cooper wrote, "I hold a family to be in a desperate way, when the mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel."
Use of the term outside the United States
In other countries, the practice is often called
patronage, but this word does not always imply corrupt or undesirable conduct.
Philippines
In the Philippines, the term is commonly used in politics. Filipino legislators are allocated large sums of the annual national budget (200 million pesos for each senator and 70 million for each representative) in a program called the Priority Development Assistance Fund.
Scandinavia
Similar expressions, meaning "election pork", are used in Danish (
valgflæsk), Swedish (
valfläsk) and Norwegian (
valgflesk), where they mean promises made
before an election, often by a politician who has little intention of fulfilling them. The Finnish political jargon uses
siltarumpupolitiikka (culvert politics) in reference to national politicians concentrating on small local matters, such as construction of
culverts and other public works at politician's home municipality.
Central and Eastern Europe
Romanians speak of
pomeni electorale (literally, "electoral alms"), while the Polish
kiełbasa wyborcza means literally "election sausage". In Serbian,
podela kolača (cutting the cake) refers to post-electoral distribution of state-funded positions for the loyal members of the winning party. The Czech
předvolební guláš (pre-election
goulash) has similar meaning, referring to free dishes of
goulash served to potential voters during election campaign meetings targeted at lower social classes; metaphorically, it stands for any populistic political decisions that are taken before the elections with the aim of obtaining more votes. The process of diverting budget funds in favor of a project in a particular constituency is called
porcování medvěda ("portioning of the bear") in Czech usage.
German-speaking countries
The German language differentiates between campaign goodies ("Wahlgeschenke" literally
election gifts) to occur around election dates and parish-pump politics ("Kirchturmpolitik" literally
church tower politics) for concentrating funding and reliefs to the home county of a politician. While the former is a technical term (neutral or slightly derogatory) the latter is always derogatory meaning that the scope of actions is limited to an area where the steeple of the politician's village can still be seen. In Switzerland the wording of provincial thinking ("Kantönligeist" literally
canton'ic mind) may cover these actions as well and it is understood as a synonym in Germany and Austria.
United Kingdom
The term is rarely used in
British English, although similar terms exist:
election sweetener,
tax sweetener, or just
sweetener. The term was, however, used in August 2013 by the Campaign for Better Transport in their criticism of Danny Alexander MP's involvement in securing funding for the A6 Manchester Airport Relief Road which passed through a marginal Liberal Democrat constituency.
Australia
Pork barrel is frequently used in
Australian politics, where
marginal seats are often accused of receiving more funding than
safe seats or, in the case of the
2010 election in negotiations with key
independents.
source: Pork barrel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What is a "PORK BARREL"?
Originally Posted by shearts
"vengeance is a dish best served cold."
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