spoils system
1
8.5
- noun
- /spɔɪlz ˈsɪstəm/
:
sistema de recompensas
- The spoils system allowed elected officials to fill government jobs with loyal supporters, often regardless of their qualifications.
Examples
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But some civil servants express concern that eliminating civil service rules will erode protections designed to prevent the reincarnation of the spoils system.
Academic text (2004) -
This in turn led to widespread corruption of the spoils system by political machines.
Academic text (1994) -
NickT, thanks to bipartisan spoils system politics, the current system is unsustainable.
Blog text (18) -
Many municipal jobs and almost all county positions remained under the spoils system in each city until the early 1950s, and the civil service was not significantly extended to the state administration in Pennsylvania before the election of George Leader as governor in 1954.
Academic text (1996) -
I applaud the efforts of Ron Paul's supporters to try to make inroads into the local and state committees of the Republican Party, but as the latest convention showed, the Republican Party is a top-down party controlled by money interests more concerned with using government as a spoils system.
Blog text (31) -
The racial spoils system in the United States rewards groups who put collective interests ahead of individualistic attitudes, and blacks will not abandon this course as long as it continues to provide them with a support system and avenues to power that would be denied them in a merit-based, individualist world.
Blog text (15) -
Critics argue that the spoils system promotes inefficiency by prioritizing political loyalty over merit in public service appointments.
-
Reforming the spoils system is essential to ensure that government positions are filled by qualified individuals rather than party loyalists.
Synonyms
15
8.4
Giving jobs or positions to friends instead of qualified people
13
7.4
A government gives jobs or favors to supporters in return for political help
A system where people in power give jobs or money to supporters for loyalty
Giving jobs or benefits to friends instead of more qualified people
Using a public office to get personal money or benefits
Antonyms
- Formal
1
3.7
A way to hire and promote people in government or companies based on ability
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'spoils' (loot or rewards taken by winners) combined with 'system' suggests an arrangement for distributing rewards, so a learner might infer a general idea of rewarding supporters. However, the specific political meaning — a system of appointing party loyalists to government posts — is a conventionalized, metaphorical usage tied to historical/political contexts and is unlikely to be fully predictable at B1 without prior exposure.
Etymology
Spoils system may come from the old saying 'the winner takes the spoils', where spoils were the goods taken after a battle. In politics, winners treated government jobs as those spoils and gave them to friends, so the phrase now means 'giving public positions to party supporters'.