spoils system

Examples of spoils system in the following topics:

• Jackson's Appointments and Rivalries

  • In American politics, a spoils system (or patronage system) is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its voters as a reward for working toward victory.
  • President after president continued to use the spoils system to encourage citizens to vote in a particular way.
  • In state and local governments, the spoils system survived much longer.
  • Modern variations on the spoils system are often described as "the political machine."
  • Describe the creation of the spoils system and its eventual reform

• Corruption and Reform: Hayes to Harrison

  • The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in ended the spoils system at the federal level in 1883.
  • A spoils system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice where a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its voters as a reward for their support and as an incentive to keep working for the party (as opposed to a system of awarding offices on the basis of merit independent of political activity).
  • Proponents denounced the spoils system as corrupt and inefficient.
  • The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in ended the spoils system at the federal level in 1883 and created a bipartisan Civil Service Commission to evaluate job candidates on a nonpartisan merit basis.
  • While few jobs were initially covered under the law, it allowed the President to transfer jobs and their current holders into the system, thus giving the holder a permanent job.

• Civil Service Reform

  • Hayes took office determined to reform the system of civil service appointments, which had been based on the spoils system since Andrew Jackson was president.
  • Immediately, Hayes's call for reform brought him into conflict with the Stalwarts, a pro-spoils branch of the Republican party.
  • Although he could not convince Congress to outlaw the spoils system, Hayes issued an executive order that forbade federal office holders from being required to make campaign contributions or otherwise taking part in party politics.
  • To enforce the merit system and the judicial system, the law also created the United States Civil Service Commission.
  • When Arthur succeeded Garfield, reformers feared that Arthur, as a product of the spoils system, would not devote his administration's energy to continuing the investigation into the Postal Service scandal.

• Garfield and Arthur

  • As president, Chester Arthur continued many of the reforms of his predecessor, though he had benefited from the spoils system himself.
  • However, reformers of the time criticized the patronage structure and the moiety system as corrupt.
  • Congress repealed the moiety system and put the staff, including Arthur, on regular salary.
  • When he succeeded Garfield, reformers feared that Arthur, as a product of the spoils system, would not devote his administration's energy to continuing the investigation into the Post Office scandal.
  • To enforce the merit system and the judicial system, the law also created the United States Civil Service Commission.

• Conclusion: The Successes and Failures of Progressivism

  • The 1883 Civil Service Reform Act (or Pendleton Act), which placed most federal employees on the merit system and marked the end of the so-called "spoils system", permitted the professionalization and rationalization of the federal administration.
  • Henceforth, the spoils system survived much longer in many states, counties and municipalities, such as the Tammany Hall ring, which survived well into the 1930s when New York City reformed its own civil service.
  • Segregation was never mandated by law in the Northern states, but a "de facto" system grew for schools, in which nearly all black students attended schools that were nearly all-black.

• Jackson's Democratic Agenda

  • Also known as the spoils system, patronage was the policy of appointing political supporters to government offices.

• Cleveland and the Special Interests

  • As president, Grover Cleveland worked to eradicate spoils jobs from the government with limited success.
  • These jobs were typically filled under the spoils system, but Cleveland announced that he would not fire any Republican who was doing his job well.

• Politics in the Gilded Age

  • Gilded Age politics, referred to as the "Third Party System," were characterized by intense competition between the two parties, with minor parties coming and going, especially on issues of concern to prohibitionists, labor unions, and farmers.
  • Financed by the "spoils system," the winning party distributed most local, state, and national government jobs, and many government contracts, to its loyal supporters.
  • Votes were repaid with favors from the government once a candidate was elected; very often, candidates were selected based on their willingness to play along with the spoils system.
  • "Romanism" referred to Roman Catholics, especially Irish Americans, who ran the Democratic Party in most cities, and whom the reformers denounced for political corruption and the operation of a separate parochial school system.

• The Democratization of the Political Arena

  • More broadly, the term "Jacksonian Democracy" refers to the period of the Second Party System (mid-1830s to 1854), when the democratic attitude defined the spirit of that era.
  • Patronage: Also known as the spoils system, patronage was the policy of placing political supporters into appointed offices.
  • Voter turnout soared during the Second Party System, reaching about 80 percent of the adult white men by 1840.

• Republican Reform Under Harrison

  • Harrison had campaigned as a supporter of the merit system, as opposed to the spoils system.