Patronage, the Public Service and the Courts

• Author: Neil D. McFeeley
• DOI: 10.1177/009102608101000308
• Date: 01 September 1981
• Published date: 01 September 1981
• Subject Matter: Article

Patronage, the Public Service and

the

Courts

by

Neil D. McFeeley

University

of

Idaho

10

In

recent

years

the

federal judiciary, especially

the

United

States

Supreme

Court,

has

made

several significant decisions

dealing

with

dismissals

and

transfers

of public

employees for political reasons. Those decisions concern

the

practice of

patronage

and

affect

the

political

party

system

and

the

merit

system.

This

article

will briefly discuss

the

background of

patronage

and

merit

and

then

analyze

the

major

recent

court

decisions on

the

topic of patronage.

It

will conclude

with

an

examination

of

the

impact

and

possible implications

ofthese decisions for

the

public service of federal,

state,

and

local government.

Patronage and

Merit

Patronage

is

the

capacity to appoint or dismiss public officials on

the

basis

of political,

usually

partisan, reasons

rather

than

professional qualifications or merit.

(It

may

include

other

activi-

ties, such as

granting

governmentcontractsto political"friends,"

but

this

article

is

not

concerned

with those aspects ofpatronage.)

Patronage

is

neither

a

recent

nor

an

American invention. Some

scholars

trace

its

origins to

the

ancient

Chinese who sold public offices to

raise

funds

during

national crises. "As

early

as 243 B.C., those who gave a

certain

amount

of

grain

to

the

state

were rewarded

with

one

rank

in

the

official hierarchy."! Tolchin

and

Tolchin also note

the

irony

that

while

the

first known

patronage

system

originated

in

China,

so too did

the

first

merit

system-the

mandarin

class of

administrator.

Rulers in

other

nations

soon discovered

that

selling offices was a convenient

means

of

raising

funds

and

perhaps

gaining

loyal officials.

The

Roman empire used

the

system, as did

the

fourteenth-century

ottoman

Empire,

where

"sultans

auctioned off

the

governorships of

Egypt

and

Syria

for 60,000 gold

ducats

apiece."2.3

The

Catholic

Church

sanctioned

the

practice of

patronage

in

its

canon law. In

France

the

"venalite

des offices" involved

the

sale of political, civil,

and

military

offices by

the

seventeenth

century.

Patronage

in

Great

Britain

(where

the

"going

rate

under

the

English

Stuarts

for

the

office of

Secretary of

State

ranged

from 6,000 to 10,000 pounds") contributed to

the

English

civil

war

and

to

the

American Revolution, since

the

colonies were often governed by

patronage

officeholders

who

remained

in

England

while

attempting

to

make

aprofit off

the

colonists.

Patronage

flourished

in

America as well,

both

before

and

particularly

soon

after

the

ratifi-

cation of

the

Constitution.

Many

of

the

colonial

charters

and

the

early

state

constitutions

contained

the

requirement

for

"rotation

in office,"

the

idea

that

elected

and

appointed officials

should only serve for fixed

terms

and

then

be obliged to

retire

from

the

position.

Justified

as a

means to educate

the

people in government service

and

to

prevent

tyranny

from long-term

officeholders,

rotation

in office also contributed to

"the

custom of

using

the

public offices openly

and continuously as

ammunition

in

party

warfare/'s

Thus

patronage

developed

at

the

sub-

federal level. At

the

beginning

of

the

new government,

there

were only a few executive officials

to be appointed

at

the

federal level.

President

Washington's

requirement

was

for "fitness of

character," or personal

integrity

as revealed by

high

social standing. Washington also

made

Public Personnel

Management

Journal

343