Revolving door (politics)

In politics, a revolving door can refer to two distinct phenomena.

Primarily, it denotes a situation wherein personnel move between roles as legislators or regulators in the public sector, and as employees or lobbyists of industries (affected by state legislation and regulations) in the private sector. It is analogous to the movement of people in a physical revolving door, hence its name. Critics assert that such a relationship between the government and private sector can lead to conflict of interest and regulatory capture, based on the granting of reciprocated privileges between them.

The term has also been used to refer to the constant switching and ousting of political leaders from office, such as in Australia (which changed Prime Ministers 6 times from 2007 to 2018),^[1] interwar Yugoslavia, and Japan.