Answer:
The political business cycle refers to the phenomenon that just before elections, politicians enact <u>expansionary</u> policies. After the elections, the bad effects of these policies (for example, <u>a higher inflation rate</u>) have to be counteracted with <u>contractionary</u> policies.
Explanation:
Elections are won or loss depending on how the country's economy is doing, all the talk about policies, environment, health care, education, is just non-sense when you are at a voting booth.
When Bill Clinton was running against Bush father he wanted to focus his campaign on things he considered important issues, e.g. health care, education, environment, etc., and wasn't doing very well in the polls until his economic adviser hung a sign that read "It's the economy STUPID", and he started to change the focus of his campaign.
Just after the last presidential election CNN posted an article about a Muslim Hindu woman (who also has very dark skin) that voted for Donald Trump because she was having problems with her health premium. She is or was a CNN independent collaborator and she admitted that Trump represented everything she hated and she probably represented everything Trump hated, but she couldn't ignore her personal finances when voting.
That is a phenomenon that happens all around the world, every single Russian knows Putin is a corrupt mobster, in Argentina a former President who ran again won the election (as vice-president this time) while facing 13 different jail orders for corruption charges, and lately we have Johnson who is a wife-beater in the UK, and the list covers the whole world.
Presidents in office need a growing economy and they need it right before an election.