Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In politics and government, a spoils system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends (), and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party—as opposed to a merit system, where offices are awarded or promoted on the basis of some ...
Proponents of the spoils system were successful at blocking meaningful civil service reform until the assassination of President James A. Garfield in 1881. The 47th Congress passed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act during its lame duck session and President Chester A. Arthur, himself a former spoilsman, signed the bill into law.
Outlawing the Spoils: A History of the Civil Service Reform Movement, 1865–1883 (1961) Hoogenboom, Ari. "The Pendleton Act and the Civil Service Reform." American Historical Review 1959. 64: 301–18. in JSTOR. Hoogenboom, Ari. "Thomas A. Jenckes and Civil Service Reform." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 1961. 47: 636–58. in JSTOR
Both Democratic and Republican leaders realized that they could attract the votes of reformers by turning against the spoils system and, by 1882, a bipartisan effort began in favor of reform. [149] In 1880, Democratic Senator George H. Pendleton of Ohio introduced legislation that required selection of civil servants based on merit as ...
The debate over patronage and the spoils system also became more prominent under the Hayes administration, as President Hayes sought to do away with them in favor of civil service reform. The Half-Breed faction of Congress advocated for this civil service reform while the Stalwarts became a major political force in opposition to it.
Tackling corruption was the key to making democracy work in the 20th century. Trump's plans could bring back an age of graft and patronage.
Some of the messaging has been centered on stopping a return to the “spoils system,” in which government jobs were handed to partisan backers, friends and family members. That system was ...
The "spoils" system of federal hiring was reformed only after President James A. Garfield, depicted at his 1881 inauguration, was assassinated by a former supporter who'd been denied a position.