spoils system

/spɔɪlz ˈsɪstəm/

Other forms: spoils systems

In politics, a spoils system is a practice of an election winner giving government jobs to supporters, friends, and family members.

Throughout most of the 1880s, the U.S. spoils system ensured that political supporters and donors got the best high-level jobs in new presidential administrations. Reforms in the 1880s officially ended the spoils system, though there have been attempts to bring it back and make it easy to fire federal workers perceived as disloyal to the president. The term comes from the phrase "to the victor belong the spoils," or in other words, "the winner gets the profits."

Definitions of spoils system

1. noun

   the system of employing and promoting civil servants who are friends and supporters of the group in power
   antonyms:

   merit system

   the system of employing and promoting civil servants on the basis of ability

   type of:

   system, system of rules

   a complex of methods or rules governing behavior