Logrolling

n. mutual assistance, practice of working together in order to attain a particular goal (in politics, etc.); rolling of logs from one place to another

v. conspire, plot (in politics, etc.)

For the lumberjack contest, see log rolling.Logrolling (or horse trading in British English) is a colorful phrase used to describe trading of votes by legislative members to obtain passage of actions of interest to each legislative member. The term is also used for similar activities in academics, notably the "cross quoting" of papers in order to drive up reference counts.
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Noun
1. act of exchanging favors for mutual gain; especially trading of influence or votes among legislators to gain passage of certain projects
(hypernym) exchange
(derivation) logroll
2. rotating a log rapidly in the water (as a competitive sport)
(synonym) birling
(hypernym) spin, twirl, twist, twisting, whirl
(classification) sport, athletics

Verb
1. work toward the passage of some legislation by exchanging political favors such as trading votes
(hypernym) politick
(derivation) logrolling

(n.)
The act or process of rolling logs from the place where they were felled to the stream which floats them to the sawmill or to market. In this labor neighboring camps of loggers combine to assist each other in turn.
  

(n.)
Hence: A combining to assist another in consideration of receiving assistance in return; -- sometimes used of a disreputable mode of accomplishing political schemes or ends.
  

A practice common in the U.S. Congress and in many other legislative assemblies in which two (or more) legislators agree for each to trade his vote on one bill he cares little about in exchange for the other's vote on a bill that is personally much more important to him. Logrolling is especially common when the legislators are relatively free of control by their national party leaders and are trying to secure votes for bills that will concentrate sizable benefits on their own home districts while spreading most of the costs out over taxpayers in the rest of the country. Local projects such as Federally funded dams, bridges, highways, housing projects, VA hospitals, job-training centers, military bases and the like are often pushed through by logrolling.
[See also: pork-barrel legislation , appropriation bill , authorization boll ]