Effects on Bureacracy

The Pendleton Act initially only applied to about ten percent of government jobs. Today, about two-thirds of government jobs are attained through a competitive process that determines merit and that is overseen by OPM. Only three percent of government jobs are “handed out” by presidents and this usually only applies to high level positions like cabinet heads. The remaining government jobs are awarded by individual agencies that base hiring on their own merit based system. The misuse and abuse of the Spoils System and the subsequent reforms that followed led to the development of many of the rules bureaucrats must follow in order to ensure impartiality and efficient government productivity for better “customer service”.

Websites Used:

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/spoils-system.html

http://www.shmoop.com/federal-bureaucracy/spoils-system.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoils_system