<P> 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 civil service jobs to its supporters, friends, and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party--as opposed to a merit system, where offices are awarded on the basis of some measure of merit, independent of political activity . </P> <P> The term was used particularly in politics of the United States, where the federal government operated on a spoils system until the Pendleton Act was passed in 1883 due to a civil service reform movement . Thereafter the spoils system was largely replaced by a nonpartisan merit at the federal level of the United States . </P>

Giving government jobs to friends or as political favors is known as