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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 ...
Jackson argued that rotation in office reduced corruption [201] by making officeholders responsible to the popular will, [202] but it functioned as political patronage and became known as the spoils system. [203] [201]
He instituted the spoils system for federal government positions, using his patronage powers to build a powerful and united Democratic Party. In response to the nullification crisis , Jackson threatened to send federal soldiers into South Carolina, but the crisis was defused by the passage of the Tariff of 1833 .
The spoils system propagated like a pernicious weed. Leaders of the Whig Party denounced Democratic Party patronage, but practiced it themselves when they came to power in the 1840s, as did the ...
At first it covered very few jobs but there was a ratchet provision whereby outgoing presidents could lock in their own appointees by converting their jobs to civil service. Political reformers, typified by the Mugwumps demanded an end to the spoils system. After a series of party reversals at the presidential level (in 1884, 1888, 1892, 1896 ...
Patronage – Also known as the spoils system, patronage was the policy of placing political supporters into appointed offices. Many Jacksonians held the view that rotating political appointees in and out of office was not only the right, but also the duty of winners in political contests.
KYIV (Reuters) -The United States shut its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday due to "specific information of a potential significant air attack" and told its citizens in Ukraine to be ready to swiftly ...
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.