We consider a two period model in which an incumbent political party chooses the level of a current policy variable unilaterally, but faces competition from a political opponent in the future. Both parties care about voters' payoffs, but they have different beliefs about how policy choices will...

This chapter surveys research on the demand for protectionism as well as theoretical and empirical work on the (i) electoral mechanisms, the (ii) lobbying institutions, and the (iii) legislative bargaining that affect its supply. A recent trend is mutual feedbacks between commercial policy on...