spoils system
noun
: a practice of regarding public offices and their emoluments as plunder for members of the victorious party
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web The 19th-century reformers who ended the spoils system opposed removal protections. 
James Sherk, WSJ, 8 Aug. 2022 There was a general feeling that the spoils system of political appointments by the party in power (during the post–Civil War era, that was nearly always the Republicans) had gotten out of hand. Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 25 July 2022 The exam was created by the Rogers Act, which abolished the spoils system and transformed the Foreign Service into a professional organization with hiring and promotions based on merit. Dave Seminara, WSJ, 2 May 2022 That’s a noble-sounding word, yet one that corrupts the notion of equality under the law by imposing a racial-spoils system favored by social-justice warriors. Asra Q. Nomani, National Review, 9 Mar. 2022 Despite the nominal idealism of multiculturalism, this looks like a diversity spoils system, whose proliferating claimants will become impossible to satisfy. Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 16 Dec. 2020 One of the last vestiges of the spoils system, cushy diplomatic posts routinely go to campaign patrons. Isaac Arnsdorf, ProPublica, 9 May 2021 The real history of Catholic justices on the Supreme Court is mostly a story of the happy irrelevance of their faith, except in the trivial way that religion has sometimes mattered in an interest-group spoils system. Matthew J. Franck, WSJ, 8 Oct. 2020 But Jackson, who was in from 1829 to 1837, really institutionalized postal patronage with his spoils system. Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2020 See More
James Sherk, WSJ, 8 Aug. 2022 There was a general feeling that the spoils system of political appointments by the party in power (during the post–Civil War era, that was nearly always the Republicans) had gotten out of hand. Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 25 July 2022 The exam was created by the Rogers Act, which abolished the spoils system and transformed the Foreign Service into a professional organization with hiring and promotions based on merit. Dave Seminara, WSJ, 2 May 2022 That’s a noble-sounding word, yet one that corrupts the notion of equality under the law by imposing a racial-spoils system favored by social-justice warriors. Asra Q. Nomani, National Review, 9 Mar. 2022 Despite the nominal idealism of multiculturalism, this looks like a diversity spoils system, whose proliferating claimants will become impossible to satisfy. Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 16 Dec. 2020 One of the last vestiges of the spoils system, cushy diplomatic posts routinely go to campaign patrons. Isaac Arnsdorf, ProPublica, 9 May 2021 The real history of Catholic justices on the Supreme Court is mostly a story of the happy irrelevance of their faith, except in the trivial way that religion has sometimes mattered in an interest-group spoils system. Matthew J. Franck, WSJ, 8 Oct. 2020 But Jackson, who was in from 1829 to 1837, really institutionalized postal patronage with his spoils system. Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2020 See More Word History
First Known Use
1838, in the meaning defined above