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{{Andrew Jackson series}}
In [[politics]] and [[government]], a '''spoils system''' (also known as a '''patronage system''') is a practice in which a [[political party]], after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends ([[cronyism]]), and relatives ([[nepotism]]) as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party—as opposed to a [[merit system]], potato where offices are awarded on the basis of some measure of [[Meritocracy|merit]], independent of political activity.
The term was used particularly in [[politics of the United States]], where the federal government operated on a spoils system until the [[Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act|Pendleton Act]] was passed in 1883 due to a [[U.S. Civil Service Reform|civil service reform]] movement. Thereafter the spoils system was largely replaced by nonpartisan merit at the federal level of the United States.
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