Patronage Appointment

A patronage appointment is the practice of staffing public offices based on partisan loyalty, campaign service, or personal ties to a political leader, rather than through competitive examination or merit-based selection. The term is closely associated with the so-called spoils system, a phrase popularized by U.S. Senator William L. Marcy in 1832 when he declared that "to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy."

Patronage was the dominant mode of staffing the U.S. federal bureaucracy through much of the 19th century, particularly under President Andrew Jackson, who used appointments to consolidate party discipline. The system was sharply curtailed by the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883, passed after the assassination of President James A. Garfield by a disappointed office-seeker. The Pendleton Act created the U.S. Civil Service Commission and required that a portion of federal posts be filled by competitive examination — a share that expanded over subsequent decades.

Patronage appointments persist today in more limited forms:

• Political (non-career) appointments to cabinet secretaryships, agency heads, ambassadorships, and policy positions, which in the U.S. number in the low thousands and are listed in the Plum Book published after each presidential election.
• Judicial and board appointments at state and local levels.
• Party-based public-sector hiring in many parliamentary systems, sometimes called lottizzazione in Italy or Proporz in Austria.

The U.S. Supreme Court has placed constitutional limits on patronage in the lower civil service. In Elrod v. Burns (1976) and Branti v. Finkel (1980), the Court held that dismissing public employees solely for partisan affiliation generally violates the First Amendment, except for positions where political loyalty is a legitimate job requirement. Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois (1990) extended that protection to hiring, promotion, and transfer decisions.

Critics argue patronage breeds corruption and incompetence; defenders contend it ensures democratic responsiveness and policy alignment between elected leaders and the bureaucracy.