chAPTeR eleven • The BuReAucRAcy 259
Spoils System
The awarding of
government jobs to
political supporters and
friends.
Merit System
The selection, retention,
and promotion of
government employees on
the basis of competitive
examinations.
Pendleton Act (Civil
Service Reform Act)
An act that established
the principle of federal
government employment
based on merit and
created the Civil Service
Commission to administer
the personnel service.
Civil Service
Commission
The initial central
personnel agency of the
national government;
created in 1883.The difficulty in Firing civil servants. This inertia is compounded by the fact that it
is very difficult to discharge civil servants. In recent years, fewer than 0.1 percent of federal
employees have been fired for incompetence. Because discharged employees may appeal
their dismissals, many months or even years can pass before the issue is resolved conclu-
sively. This occupational rigidity helps to ensure that most political appointees, no matter
how competent or driven, will not be able to exert much meaningful influence over their
subordinates, let alone implement dramatic changes in the bureaucracy itself.history of the Federal civil service
When the federal government was formed in 1789, it had no career public servants but
rather consisted of amateurs who were almost all Federalists. When Thomas Jefferson
took over as president, few federal administrative jobs were held by members of his party,
so he fired more than one hundred officials and replaced them with his own supporters.
Then, for the next twenty-five years, a growing body of federal administrators gained
experience and expertise, becoming in the process professional public servants. These
administrators stayed in office regardless of who was elected president. The bureaucracy
had become a self-maintaining, long-term element within government.
To the victors Belong the spoils. When Andrew Jackson took over the White House
in 1828, he could not believe how many appointed officials (appointed before he became
president, that is) were overtly hostile toward him and his Democratic Party. Because the
bureaucracy was reluctant to carry out his programs, Jackson did the obvious: he fired
federal officials—more than all his predecessors combined. The spoils system—an appli-
cation of the principle that to the victors belong the spoils—became the standard method
of filling federal positions. Whenever a new president was elected from a party different
from the party of the previous president, there would be an almost complete turnover in
the staffing of the federal government.
The civil service Reform Act of 1883. Jackson’s spoils system survived for a num-
ber of years, but it became increasingly corrupt. In addition, the size of the bureaucracy
increased by 300 percent between
1851 and 1881. As the bureaucracy
grew larger, the cry for civil service
reform became louder. Reformers
began to look to the example of
several European countries—in par-
ticular, Germany. That country had
established a professional civil service
that operated under a merit system,
in which job appointments were
based on competitive examinations.
In 1883, the Pendleton act—
or civil service reform act—was
passed, placing the first limits on the
spoils system. The act established
the principle of employment on the
basis of open, competitive examina-
tions and created the civil service
commission to administer the per-
sonnel service. Only 10 percent ofPresident James A. Garfield was assassinated in 1881 by a
disappointed office seeker, Charles J. Guiteau. The long-term effect of this event was
to replace the spoils system with a permanent career civil service. This process began
with the passage of the Pendelton Act in 1883, which established the Civil Service
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