where it will benefit their constituents in a direct and obvious way. Thus, when legislators are negotiating over

whether to support a piece of legislation, they commonly ask each other to include pork-barrel spending,

legislation that benefits mainly a single political district. Pork-barrel spending is another case in which

concentrated benefits and widely dispersed costs challenge democracy: the benefits of pork-barrel spending

are obvious and direct to local voters, while the costs are spread over the entire country. Read the following

Clear It Up feature for more information on pork-barrel spending.

CLEAR IT UP

How much impact can pork-barrel spending have?
Many observers widely regard U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, who was originally elected to the Senate

in 1958 and served until 2010, as one of the masters of pork-barrel politics, directing a steady stream of federal
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