Spoils system

In and, a spoils system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice in which a , 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 , where offices are awarded on the basis of some measure of , independent of political activity.

The term was used particularly in, where the federal government operated on a spoils system until the was passed in 1883 due to a  movement. Thereafter the spoils system was largely replaced by a nonpartisan merit at the federal level of the United States.

The term was derived from the phrase "to the victor belong the spoils" by New York Senator, referring to the victory of in the , with the term spoils meaning goods or benefits taken from the loser in a competition, election or military victory.

Similar spoils systems are common in other nations that traditionally have been based on tribal organization or other s and in general.

Origins
Before 1829, moderation had prevailed in the from one U.S. president to another. Andrew Jackson's, March 4, 1829, signaled a sharp departure from the past. An unruly mob of office seekers made something of a shambles of the event, and though some tried to explain this as democratic enthusiasm, the real truth was Jackson supporters had been lavished with promises of positions in return for political support. These promises were honored by an astonishing number of removals after Jackson assumed power. At the beginning of Jackson's administration, fully 919 officials were removed from government positions, amounting to nearly 10 percent of all government postings.

The attempted to explain this unprecedented purge as reform, or constructive turnover, aimed at creating a more efficient system where the  of public employees all obeyed the higher entities of government. The hardest changed organization within the federal government proved to be the post office. The post office was the largest department in the federal government, and had even more personnel than the war department. In one year 423 postmasters were deprived of their positions, most with extensive records of good service.

Reform
By the late 1860s, citizens began demanding civil service reform. Running under the in 1872, they were soundly defeated by.

After the by a rejected office-seeker in 1881, the calls for civil service reform intensified. Moderation of the spoils system at the federal level came with the passage of the in 1883, which created a bipartisan Civil Service Commission to evaluate job candidates on a nonpartisan merit basis. While few jobs were covered under the law initially, the law allowed the President to transfer jobs and their current holders into the system, thus giving the holder a permanent job. The Pendleton Act's reach was expanded as the two main political parties alternated control of the every election between 1884 and 1896. After each election the outgoing President applied the Pendleton Act to jobs held by his political supporters. By 1900, most federal jobs were handled through civil service and the spoils system was limited only to very senior positions.

The separation between the political activity and the civil service was made stronger with the which prohibited federal employees from engaging in many political activities.

The spoils system survived much longer in many states, counties and municipalities, such as the, which survived well into the 1930s when  reformed its own civil service. modernized its bureaucracy in 1917 under, but held on to patronage in city government until the city agreed to end the practice in the  of 1972 and 1983.

Modern variations on the spoils system are often described as the.