State and local governments have employed large patronage systems. 1147) curtailed or restricted most partisan political activities of federal employees. In addition, the passage in 1939 of the Hatch Act (53 Stat. By 1980, 90 percent of federal positions had become part of the civil service system. The act, which at the time only applied to 10 percent of the federal workforce, created a Civil Service Commission and advocated a merit system for the selection of government employees. The assassination of President james garfield in 1881 by a disgruntled office seeker who did not receive a political appointment spurred Congress to pass the Civil Service Act, or Pendleton Act of 1883 (5 U.S.C.A. When President Benjamin Harrison took office in 1889, 31,000 federal postmaster positions changed hands. The loss of a presidential election by a political party signaled wholesale turnover in the federal government. Where patronage had once been confined to the cabinet, department heads, and foreign ambassadorships, by the 1860s low-level government positions were subject to patronage. By the 1860s and the Civil War, patronage had led to widespread inefficiency and political corruption. In 1820 Congress limited federal administrators to four-year terms, leading to constant turnover. government, the number of positions that are available through patronage has decreased dramatically since the 1880s. Though the patronage system exists at all levels of U.S. This is the essence of the patronage system, also known as the spoils system ("To the victor go the spoils"): appointing persons to government positions on the basis of political support and work rather than on merit, as measured by objective criteria. When the candidate of a political party wins an election, the newly elected official has the right to appoint a certain numbers of persons to jobs in the government. The practice or custom observed by a political official of filling government positions with qualified employees of his or her own choosing.
0 kommentar(er)
