Wikipedia
This article is about the
meaning and use of the Latin term.
Quid pro quo ("something for something" in Latin)
means an exchange of goods or services, where one transfer is contingent upon
the other. English speakers often use the term to mean "a favour for a
favour"; phrases with similar meaning include: "give and take",
"tit for tat", and "you scratch my back, and
I'll scratch yours".
In common law
In common law, quid pro quo indicates that an item or a service has been
traded in return for something of value, usually when the propriety or equity
of the transaction is in question. A contract must involve consideration: that is, the exchange of something of value
for something else of value.
United States
In the United States, if the exchange appears
excessively one sided, courts in some jurisdictions may question whether a quid
pro quo did actually exist and the contract may be held void.
In the U.S., lobbyists are legally entitled to support candidates that hold positions
with which the donors agree, or which will benefit the donors. Such conduct
becomes bribery only when there is an identifiable exchange between the
contribution and official acts, previous or subsequent, and the term quid
pro quo denotes such an exchange.
In the United States, Quid pro quo harassment occurs when employment or academic decisions or expectations
(hiring, promotions, salary increases, shift or work assignments, performance
standards, grades, access to recommendations, assistance with school work,
etc.) are based on an employee or student's submission to or rejection of
sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, or other behaviour of a sexual
nature (what was known in the film trade as a casting couch). These cases involve tangible actions that
adversely affect either the conditions of work or academic progress.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the one-sidedness of a
contract is covered by the Unfair
Contract Terms Act 1977 and various
revisions and amendments to it; a clause can be held void or the entire contract
void if it is deemed unfair (that is to say, one-sided and not a quid pro
quo); however this is a civil law and not a common law matter.
Political donors must be resident in the UK.
There are fixed limits to how much they may donate (£5000 in any single
donation), and it must be recorded in the House of Commons Register of
Members' Interests or at the House of
Commons Library; the quid
pro quo is strictly not allowed, that a donor can by his donation have some
personal gain. This is overseen by the Parliamentary
Commissioner for Standards. There are
also prohibitions on donations being given in the six weeks before the election
for which it is being campaigned. It is also illegal for donors to support party
political broadcasts, which are
tightly regulated, free to air, and scheduled and allotted to the various parties
according to a formula agreed by Parliament and enacted with the Communications
Act 2003.
India
In India, in September 2013, the Central
Bureau of Investigation held a
special court and summonsed Jaganmohan Reddy and N. Srinivasan to appear before it before 1 November 2013
in the "Quid Pro Quo case". On 12 February 2014, Srinivasan appeared
before the court, which is (as of 21 February 2014) sub judice.
In literature
Influence AB. A pun on the Latin expression quid pro quo,
meaning an equal exchange (this for that), and the British word quid,
meaning a pound sterling.
Elsewhere (since Bierce wrote different
definitions depending on which newspaper he was working for) he defined it:
Influence, n. In politics, a visionary quo given in exchange for a
substantial quid.
In his classic self-help book Think and
Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill (disciple of Andrew Carnegie) calls quid pro
quo "a universal law of the marketplace, which Nature Herself will
reckon if it is bent/broken long enough!"
Other meanings
Quid pro quo may sometimes be used to define a
misunderstanding or blunder made by the substituting of one thing for another,
particularly in the context of the transcribing of a text. In this alternate context, the phrase qui pro quo is more
faithful to the original Latin meaning (see below). In proofreading, an error
made by the proofer to indicate to use the original is usually marked with the
abbreviation stet ("let it stand"), not with "QPQ".
In Romanic languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and French, the phrase quid pro quo is used with
the original Latin meaning, referring to a misunderstanding or a mistake
("to take one thing for another"). In those languages, the Latin
phrase corresponding to the English usage of quid pro quo is do ut des ("I give so that you will give").
The Vocabolario Treccani (an
authoritative dictionary published by the Encyclopaedia Treccani), under the entry "qui pro quo", states that the latter
expression probably derives from the Latin used in late medieval pharmaceutical
compilations.
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