The world economy | Japain | Economist.com

There are glimmers of hope. A cross-party group of modernising politicians, academics and businessmen has formed a pressure group, Sentaku (with connotations both of choice and of giving things a good wash). Radically, they want to decentralise the top-heavy system in which local politicians are in thrall to Tokyo’s pork providers; they think the main parties should campaign on coherent manifestos; and they are urging ordinary Japanese, who do not readily bother their heads about such things, to reflect on the folly of voting for politicians who smother their districts in unused highways and bridges that lead nowhere—the visible blight of failed politics.

The world economy | Japain | Economist.com

希望はあるのだろう。多分。

from：

http://sessai.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2008/03/post_51f0_1.html

see also:
http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/seiji/20080304AT3S0301203032008.html

http://at0.blog.shinobi.jp/Entry/88/

pork barrel元来の意味は「豚肉保存用の樽」で、昔は労働者への給料として豚肉の塩漬けがわたされていたそうです。
それが、意味が転じて現在では
・連邦議会議員の選挙区のための, 政府補助金の獲得；その資金；そのための法案.
となっています。

pork-barrel politics　-　予算ばら撒き政治
pork-barrel effect 　-　利益誘導
pork-barrel projects 　-　(政治家の)人気取り政策

などの使われ方も目にします。

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10723419&CFID=15118908&CFTOKEN=9d7541b1da32fc9d-77CA1106-B27C-BB00-0127BB469ED5CD0B

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