patronage systems
Loyalty-based job distribution
Patronage systems are arrangements where a person in power distributes jobs, contracts, or other benefits to supporters rather than awarding them on merit.
The term often describes political machines where elected officials reward loyal voters and donors with government positions: The mayor's patronage system ensured that only party faithful got city jobs.
Such systems prioritize loyalty over competence and are generally viewed as corrupt, though they remain common in various forms worldwide.
- nepotismPreferring kin in hiring
- old boys networkInformal male establishment connections
- favoritismPreferential treatment of some
- cronyismFavoring friends in appointments
- Medici familyFlorentine banking dynasty
royal court · grants · art commissions · sinecures · factionalism · subsidies · social capital · machine politics · kinship ties · Tammany Hall · smoke filled rooms · sponsorships · oligarchy · political appointments · philanthropy · lobbying · corporate lobbying · boss
- Renaissance institutionsguilds, academies, universities, monasteries, convents
- elite poweroligarchy, plutocracy, oligarch, plutocrat, oligarchs
- patronagepatrons, benefactors, sponsors, donors, backers
patronage systemsmeritocracy
Advancement through demonstrated ability
credentialism · technocracy · standardized testing · merit system · competitive examination
patronage systemsrule of law
Supremacy of established laws
good governance · open competition · due process · public accountability · administrative law