Editing Logrolling (section)

=== Choice to logroll ===
Human beings, whether ignorant or informed, rational or irrational, logical or illogical, determine individual and group action through choices. Economics studies these choices, including the choice to logroll, and their particular influence within the market sector (Schwartz 1977<ref name="SchwartzThomas">{{cite journal|last=Schwartz|first=Thomas|title=Collection of Issues and Vote Trading|journal=The American Political Science Review|year=1977|volume=71|issue=3|pages=999–1010|doi=10.2307/1960103|jstor=1960103|s2cid=154434919 }}</ref>). In America, political and economic decisions are usually made by politicians elected to legislative assemblies, and not directly by the citizenry (Buchanan and Tullock 1962<ref name="BuchananJames" />). Although legislative votes are recorded and are available to the American public, legislators can exchange their votes on issues they do not care much about for votes on other issues that are more important to their personal agendas (Holcombe 2006<ref name="HolcombeRandall" />). In ''[[The Calculus of Consent]]'', [[James M. Buchanan]] and [[Gordon Tullock]] explore the relationship between individual choice in the voting process and in the marketplace, specifically within logrolling. Logrolling vote trades, like any activity within the marketplace, must be mutually beneficial (Buchanan and Tullock 1962<ref name="BuchananJames" />).

A vote trade is like a legislative [[IOU]]. When a legislator needs a few more votes to acquire a simple majority, he will seek support through a vote exchange. He will promise a fellow legislator an IOU vote for another piece of legislation in return for a vote on his own act or bill. Legislators who logroll within a small body, for example, the U.S. House or Senate, have incentive to honor their IOU votes because they cannot have their reputations tainted if they wish to be effective politicians (Holcombe 2006<ref name="HolcombeRandall" />).