|
A lame duck, in politics, is an elected official who is approaching the end of their tenure, especially one whose successor has already been elected. The official is often seen as having less influence with other politicians due to their limited time left in office. Conversely, a lame duck is free to make decisions that exercise their standard powers with little fear of consequence, such as issuing executive orders or other controversial edicts. Lame duck politicians result from term limits, planned retirement, or electoral losses. ==Description== 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 abolition of the office, which must nonetheless be served out until the end of the official's term.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher =Merriam Webster Online )〕 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 US presidential administrations and executive orders issued by outgoing presidents.〔Froomkin, Dan. "(Approaching the Midnight Hour )." ''Washington Post'' 20 November 2008.〕 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. In more recent history, US President Bill Clinton was widely criticized for issuing 140 pardons and other acts of executive clemency on his last day in office, including two former close colleagues, donors, fellow Democratic members and his own half-brother.〔() 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lame duck (politics)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|