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Lame duck (politics)
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A lame duck is an elected official who is approaching the end of his or her tenure, and especially an official whose successor has already been elected.
The status can be due to
Lame duck officials tend to have less political power, as other elected officials are less inclined to cooperate with them. However, lame ducks are also in the peculiar position of not facing the consequences of their actions in a subsequent election, giving them greater freedom to issue unpopular decisions or appointments.
Examples include last-minute midnight regulations issued by executive agencies of outgoing U.S.
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Encyclopedia
A lame duck is an elected official who is approaching the end of his or her tenure, and especially an official whose successor has already been elected.
The status can be due to
- having lost a re-election bid
- choosing not to seek another term at the expiration of the current term
- a term limit which keeps the official from running for that particular office again
- the abolishment of the office, which must nonetheless be served out until the end of the official's term.
Lame duck officials tend to have less political power, as other elected officials are less inclined to cooperate with them. However, lame ducks are also in the peculiar position of not facing the consequences of their actions in a subsequent election, giving them greater freedom to issue unpopular decisions or appointments.
Examples include last-minute midnight regulations issued by executive agencies of outgoing U.S. presidential administrations and executive orders issued by outgoing presidents. Such actions date back to the Judiciary Act of 1801 ("Midnight Judges Act"), in which Federalist President John Adams and the outgoing 6th Congress amended the Judiciary Act to create more federal judge seats for Adams to appoint and the Senate to confirm before the Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated and the Democratic-Republican majority 7th Congress convened.
Origins of the term
The phrase lame duck was coined in the 18th century at the London Stock Exchange, to refer to a broker who defaulted on his debts. The first known mention of the term in writing was made by Horace Walpole, in a letter of 1761 to Sir Horace Mann: "Do you know what a Bull and a Bear and Lame Duck are?" In the literal sense, it refers to a duck which is unable to keep up with its flock, making it a target for predators.
It was transferred to politicians in the 19th century, the first recorded use being in the Congressional Globe (the official record of the United States Congress) of January 14, 1863: “In no event . . . could [the Court of Claims] be justly obnoxious to the charge of being a receptacle of ‘lame ducks’ or broken down politicians.”
Examples
Australia
In Australia, regardless of when the election is held, the Senate (or upper house) sits from the 1st of July following the election to the 30th of June three years later, while the newly elected members of the House of Representatives (or Lower House, of which the leader of the party (or coalition of parties) with a majority of members forms Government) take their seats immediately after an election. A Senate that is destined to lose its majority as a result of such a change is called a lame-duck Senate and often attracts criticism if it blocks Government measures introduced in the House of Representatives.
For example, after the 2004 Election, it became clear that the governing Liberal Party/National Party coalition would gain a majority in the new Senate, which was due to sit the following July. In May, some months after the elections but before the new Senate came to power, the old Senate refused to pass new tax laws that had been passed by the House, which served to merely delay the passage of those laws until the new Senate assembled.
United States
In U.S. politics, the period between (Presidential and Congressional) elections in November and the inauguration of officials early in the following year is commonly called the lame duck period.
Until 1933, inauguration would occur on March 4. Congress would usually have two sessions, the second of which, being held usually from December to March, occurred after the election of the next Congress. This session was commonly called the "Lame duck session". Criticism of this process led to the passage of the 20th Amendment in 1933, which moved the convocation of the new Congress to January 3 and the inauguration of the president to January 20, thus shortening the lame duck period.
In regard to the President, lame-duck refers to the incumbent President after his or her successor has been elected. Oddly, a President elected to a second term is sometimes seen as being a lame duck essentially from the very beginning of that second term, being as that he or she is forbidden from being reelected four years later and is thus freer to take politically unpopular action. However, since the President is also the leader of his or her political party, the President's actions have bearing on how the party performs in the midterm elections two years into his or her presidency, and also (to some extent) how it performs in the elections for his or her successor.
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