Amend the Old or Address the New: Broad-Based Legislation When Proposing Policies Is Costly.

If each legislator wishes to encourage other legislators to address new problems in future periods, then a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium can exist with the following properties: (1) no legislator finds it worthwhile to make a narrow proposal that appeals to a minimum majority; (2) instead, legislators propose policies that appeal to all members, not for fear of retaliation but rather to encourage other members to work on new problems in succeeding periods; and (3) in succeeding periods, no legislator amends the existing broad policy. The authors find an equilibrium with these properties in finite as well as infinite period games. Copyright 1992 by Kluwer Academic Publishers