In politics, a lame duck or outgoing politician is an elected official whose successor has already been elected or will be soon. [1] An outgoing politician 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 the standard powers with little fear of consequence, such as issuing executive orders, pardons, or other controversial edicts. Lame duck politicians result from term limits, planned retirement, or electoral losses, and are especially noticeable where political systems build in a delay between the announcement of results and the taking of office by election winners. Even at the local level, politicians who do not seek re-election can lose credibility and influence. Uncompleted projects may fall to the wayside as their influence diminishes.
The status can be due to:
Since these politicians do not face the consequences of their actions in an upcoming election, they have 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. [2] 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. [3]
In many countries, toward the facilitation of a smooth transition, an outgoing president accepts advice from and consults with the president-elect.
The phrase was coined in the 18th century at the London Stock Exchange, to refer to a stockbroker who defaulted on his debts. [4] [5]
The first known mention of the term in writing was made by Horace Walpole, from a letter in 1761 to Sir Horace Mann: "Do you know what a Bull and a Bear and Lame Duck are?" [6]
In 1791, Mary Berry wrote of the Duchess of Devonshire's loss of £50,000 in stocks, "the conversation of the town" that her name was to be "posted up as a lame duck". [7]
In the literal sense, the term refers to a duck which is unable to keep up with its flock, making it a target for predators.[ citation needed ]
The term was transferred to politicians in the 19th century. The first known recorded use is in the Congressional Globe (then 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." [8]
In Australia, regardless of when the election is held, the Senate (upper house) sits from July 1 following the election to June 30 six years later [note 1] , while the newly elected members of the House of Representatives (lower house) take their seats soon 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.
In the 2010 Australian federal election, Senator Steve Fielding of the minor party Family First lost his seat and subsequently threatened to block supply if the Labor Party was successful in forming a minority government.
Unlike the United States Congress, there is no "lame duck" session of Parliament in most Commonwealth countries between the general election and swearing in of elected officials. In almost all cases, the outgoing prime minister or premier hands over power directly to their designated successor after a leadership contest or general election. Usually, when the leader of a ruling party steps down, they also relinquish their caucus leadership role at around the same time, so there is no need for an interim caucus leader. After an election retiring/defeated members of United States Congress do continue to wield their full authority until their term ends, by contrast the power of outgoing Canadian parliamentarians is limited. Instead the departing prime minister or premier and cabinet ministers that were members of the now dissolved parliament will serve in an "acting" or "caretaker" capacity (i.e. not being able to make important appointments nor policy declarations) until the new parliament convenes; in one example when Sir Charles Tupper attempted to make appointments after losing the 1896 Canadian election the Governor General refused to act on this.
A notable exception to the above is the transition between William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent, making it perhaps the only lame duck example in Canadian federal politics. After resigning the leadership of the Liberals, King became parliamentary leader and continued as Prime Minister of Canada for some months following the leadership election of his successor, St. Laurent, who became party leader but continued as a member of King's cabinet during this time.
While Pierre Trudeau retired from politics in 1984, he directly handed power over to John Turner after the leadership contest. However, Trudeau recommended that Governor General Jeanne Sauvé appoint over 200 Liberals to well-paying patronage positions, including Senators, judges, and executives on various governmental and crown corporation boards, widely seen as a way to offer "plum jobs" to loyal party members. These appointments generated a severe backlash across the spectrum. [9] Turner had the right to recommend that the appointments be cancelled: advice that Sauvé would have been required to follow by constitutional convention. However, he let them stand and made a further 70 appointments himself. [9] Turner refused to produce a written agreement he had made with Trudeau before taking office, documenting a secret deal that saw Trudeau step down early. This is seen by many as Trudeau attempting to exercise some lame duck influence before resigning as Prime Minister. [9] [10]
Following the collapse of a cabinet, the concurrent prime minister will usually stay as the leader of the caretaker government, until the beginning of the next term. After a potential election loss, it is custom to resign as the party leader, but remain the lame duck prime minister of the caretaker cabinet until the next cabinet is inaugurated.
As of July 2023, prime minister Mark Rutte announced his resignation and retirement from politics following the collapse of his fourth cabinet. He remained as caretaker prime minister until after the government formation following the November 2023 general election and the appointment of the Schoof cabinet.
In 1984, a constitutional crisis arose when the outgoing "lame duck" Prime Minister Robert Muldoon refused to follow the wishes of a new incoming government led by David Lange. [11] This was the only time in New Zealand where a "lame duck" Prime Minister did not follow the wishes of the incoming government.
Like many parliamentary systems, but unlike countries such as the United States that build in a transition period between elections and the taking of office by their winners, the UK does not have politicians holding office for a substantial delay after a successor has been elected.
Following general elections where a party wins a clear majority in the House of Commons, the identity of the new prime minister is immediately apparent and they are usually appointed the following morning, minutes after their predecessor resigns the office, at back-to-back meetings with the monarch. In the case of a hung parliament where the election is followed by negotiations to form a coalition, or an attempt by the leader of the largest party to lead a minority government, a new prime minister may not be appointed for a few days. In the 2010 election for example, which was held on May 6, Gordon Brown's Labour Party lost its majority in the Commons, but Brown remained caretaker prime minister until May 11, resigning when it became clear that the Conservative Party (which held a plurality) had reached a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats, whereupon the Conservative leader David Cameron was appointed prime minister.
Members of parliament cease to be such when parliament is dissolved for a general election, and cannot describe themselves as "John Smith MP" during the election campaign. Government ministers however, as part of the executive, continue to hold office unless and until new ministers are appointed after the election. [12]
An example of an extended transition period in the informal sense is the last two years of the premiership of Tony Blair, who before the 2005 United Kingdom general election announced that he would not serve another full term before standing down. However, the fact that Blair's Labour Party was returned with a substantially reduced majority and that Gordon Brown (who was correctly believed to be Blair's successor) had played a leading part in the election campaign, aroused considerable speculation about Blair's future as party leader and prime minister. [13]
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". A president is a lame duck after a successor has been elected, during which time the outgoing president and president-elect usually embark on a transition of power.
Until 1933, inaugurations occurred on March 4. Congress usually had two sessions, the second of which was usually held from the December after the election of the next Congress until March. This session was commonly called the "lame duck session". Criticism of this process led to the passage of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, which moved the beginning of the new Congress to January 3 and the inauguration of the president to January 20, thus shortening the lame duck period.
A president elected to a second term is sometimes seen as a lame duck from early in the second term, since term limits prevent them from contesting re-election four years later. However, not personally having to face the electorate again makes a second-term president more powerful than they were in their first term as they are thus freer to take politically unpopular actions. However, this comes with caveats; as the de facto leader of their political party, the president's actions affect how the party performs in the midterm elections two years into the second term, and, to some extent, the success of that party's nominee in the next presidential election four years in the future. For these reasons, it can be argued that a president in their second term is not a lame duck at all.
In his farewell speech from the office of president in January 2017, Barack Obama jokingly quipped, "You can tell that I'm a lame duck because nobody's following instructions" when the cheering and applause from the crowd prevented him from commencing his speech. [14] [15] [16]
On February 11, 2013, when Pope Benedict XVI announced that he was resigning within 17 days, he was called a "lame duck pope" by some media outlets. [17] Also, due to Pope John Paul II's long and debilitating illness, some journalists (such as Time 's Jeff Israely) described the final years of his reign as a lame duck papacy. [18]
The discontent with the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela saw the opposition being elected to hold the majority in the National Assembly of Venezuela for the first time since 1999 following the 2015 parliamentary election. [19] As a result of that election, the lame-duck National Assembly consisting of United Socialist officials filled the Supreme Tribunal (supreme court) with allies. [19] [20] Into early 2016, the Supreme Tribunal alleged that voting irregularities occurred in the parliamentary elections and stripped four Assembly members of their seats, preventing an opposition supermajority in the National Assembly which would be able to challenge President Maduro. [19] The Assembly nevertheless swore in the members in question, in response to which the Supreme Court ruled that the Assembly was in contempt of court and in violation of the constitutional order. [21] The Supreme Tribunal then began to approve multiple actions performed by Maduro and granted him more powers [19] and later stripped the National Assembly of legislative powers, and took those powers for itself; which meant that the Supreme Tribunal might have been able to create laws, causing the 2017 constitutional crisis. [22]
In sports usage, a coach or general manager in the final year of their contract without a forthcoming contract extension is often described as a lame duck. [23] [24]
Additionally, if a team is on track to miss the playoffs, a coach or general manager can be regarded as a lame duck even if they are under a multiyear contract if they are expected to be fired shortly before or once the season ends. [25] Often taking the blame as the team is out of contention for the postseason, the coach or/and general manager is seen as a poor fit or otherwise does not relate well with others – players and other coaches, the media, their superiors and so forth – and a change in leadership is apparently forthcoming or desired. Often, there will be rumors of a coach and/or manager departure – often by dismissal or forced resignation (also known as "by mutual consent") – with said rumors often beginning several games before the end of the season. Dismissal of the coach and/or manager once the team is eliminated from reaching the postseason, rather than waiting for the conclusion of the season, does cut short their "lame duck" status and clears the way for new hires. In that case, an interim coach and/or interim manager will be appointed to see out the remainder of the season, though their predecessors may still remain on the club payroll as a "special advisor" until their contracts expires. [26]
Especially in the United Kingdom, a "lame duck company" is one that is in such financial difficulty that it is not worth investing in, or is unworthy of government support. [27]
In networked server systems, term "lame duck mode" is used to describe a networked server that is being in process of shutting down (for example for software update or relocating to a different physical machine). During lame duck mode, which can last from few seconds to few minutes, server will finish serving existing clients and requests, and for some time will continue accepting new requests, while notifying clients to not contact them again for some time. If server continues receiving new requests after this grace period, it might stop serving them and shut down anyway, depending on a desired outcome and configuration. With proper cooperation of client applications, this reduces service disruption and retry latency in distributed systems. There are many other possible variations of "lame duck mode", like serving existing connections, but not accepting any new connections. [28] As such lame duck mode is part of general load balancing methods.
The politics of Bulgaria take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the prime minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The prime minister of Canada is the head of government of Canada. Not outlined in any constitutional document, the office exists only per long-established convention. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority of the elected House of Commons; as such, the prime minister typically sits as a member of Parliament (MP) and leads the largest party or a coalition of parties. The prime minister is appointed by the monarch's representative, the governor general, and, as first minister, selects other ministers to form the Cabinet and chairs it. Constitutionally, executive authority is vested in the monarch, but, in practice, the powers of the monarch and governor general are nearly always exercised on the advice of the Cabinet, which is collectively responsible to the House of Commons. Canadian prime ministers are appointed to the Privy Council and styled as the Right Honourable, a privilege maintained for life.
The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution moved the beginning and ending of the terms of the president and vice president from March 4 to January 20, and of members of Congress from March 4 to January 3. It also has provisions that determine what is to be done when there is no president-elect. The Twentieth Amendment was adopted on January 23, 1933.
The House of Commons of Canada is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada.
A convention is an informal and uncodified tradition that is followed by the institutions of a state. In some states, notably those Commonwealth of Nations states that follow the Westminster system and whose political systems derive from British constitutional law, most government functions are guided by constitutional convention rather than by a formal written constitution. In these states, actual distribution of power may be markedly different from those the formal constitutional documents describe. In particular, the formal constitution often confers wide discretionary powers on the head of state that, in practice, are used only on the advice of the head of government, and in some cases not at all.
A caretaker government, also known as a caretaker regime, is a temporary ad hoc government that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed. Depending on specific practice, it consists of either randomly selected members of parliament or outgoing members until their dismissal.
The deputy prime minister of Canada is a minister of the Crown and a member of the Canadian Cabinet. The office is conferred at the discretion of the prime minister and does not have an associated departmental portfolio. Canadian deputy prime ministers are appointed to the Privy Council and styled as the Honourable, a privilege maintained for life.
Allan Joseph MacEachen was a Canadian politician and statesman who served as a senator and several times as a Cabinet minister. He was the first deputy prime minister of Canada and served from 1977 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984.
A crossbencher is a minor party or independent member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and opposition benches, where crossbenchers sit in the chamber.
The prime minister of Bangladesh, officially prime minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is the chief executive of the government of Bangladesh. The prime minister and the cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Parliament, to their political party and ultimately to the electorate. The prime minister is ceremonially appointed by the president of Bangladesh.
A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to decide a pressing issue, under circumstances when an election is not required by law or convention. A snap election differs from a recall election in that it is initiated by politicians rather than voters, and from a by-election in that a completely new parliament is chosen as opposed to merely filling vacancies in an already established assembly. Early elections can also be called in certain jurisdictions after a ruling coalition is dissolved if a replacement coalition cannot be formed within a constitutionally set time limit.
The dissolution of a legislative assembly is the simultaneous termination of service of all of its members, in anticipation that a successive legislative assembly will reconvene later with possibly different members. In a democracy, the new assembly is chosen by a general election. Dissolution is distinct on the one hand from abolition of the assembly, and on the other hand from its adjournment or prorogation, or the ending of a legislative session, any of which begins a period of inactivity after which it is anticipated that the same members will reassemble. For example, the "second session of the fifth parliament" could be followed by the "third session of the fifth parliament" after a prorogation, but would be followed by the "first session of the sixth parliament" after a dissolution.
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was an Indian politician who served as the sixth president of India, serving from 1977 to 1982. Beginning a long political career with the Indian National Congress Party in the independence movement, he went on to hold several key offices in independent India – as Deputy Chief minister of Andhra state and the first chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, a two-time Speaker of the Lok Sabha and a Union Minister— before becoming the Indian president.
The premiership of Stephen Harper began on February 6, 2006, when the first Cabinet headed by Stephen Harper was sworn in by Governor General Michaelle Jean. Harper was invited to form the 28th Canadian Ministry, becoming Prime Minister of Canada following the 2006 election, where Harper's Conservative Party won a plurality of seats in the House of Commons of Canada, defeating the Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin's government. In the 2011 federal election, Harper won his first and only majority government.
Alberta is the only Canadian province to hold elections for nominees to be appointed to the Senate of Canada. These elections are non-binding, as the appointment of senators is solely the responsibility of the Governor General of Canada on the advice of the Prime Minister.
A caretaker government of Bangladesh, is an unelected interim government in Bangladesh tasked with organizing free and fair general elections. The Chief Adviser, the head of government in lieu of the Prime Minister, is appointed by the President. The Chief Advisor appoints other advisers, who act as ministers. The appointments are intended to be nonpartisan.
In Australian political and constitutional terminology, a caretaker government is a government of Australia from when the House of Representatives is dissolved by the Governor-General prior to a general election to a period after the election, until the next ministry is appointed. A caretaker government is expected to conduct itself in accordance with a series of well-defined conventions administered by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, but there is no law compelling the caretaker government to do so.
A prime minister–designate or premier–designate is the person who is expected to succeed an incumbent as prime minister, or premier, as the result of a general election, winning the leadership of a currently governing party, or being named by the head of state to form a new government.
A lame-duck session of Congress in the United States occurs whenever one Congress meets after its successor is elected, but before the successor's term begins. The expression is now used not only for a special session called after a sine die adjournment, but also for any portion of a regular session that falls after an election. In current practice, any meeting of Congress after election day, but before the next Congress convenes the following January, is a lame-duck session. Prior to 1933, when the 20th Amendment changed the dates of the congressional term, the last regular session of Congress was always a lame-duck session.
The 43rd Canadian Parliament was in session from December 5, 2019, to August 15, 2021, with the membership of its Lower House, the House of Commons of Canada, having been determined by the results of the 2019 federal election held on October 21, 2019. Parliament officially resumed on December 5, 2019, with the election of a new Speaker, Anthony Rota, followed by a speech from the throne the following day. On August 15, 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau advised Governor General Mary Simon to dissolve Parliament and issue the writ of election, leading to a 5-week election campaign period for the 2021 federal election.