Brief review of the need for Civil Service Reform in the 1880s with President Arthur.

1. CIVIL SERVICE
REFORM
for Unit 3C
Chapter 4 Lesson 4

2. Chief
Executive
First, it is important to know about the President.
◦ The president has many roles, one his most
important is Chief Executive
◦ As Chief Executive, the president’s main job is to
carry out the laws
◦ The country is so large, and the laws are so varied
that the president surrounds him/herself with
experts in each field
◦ For many of these fields, the president gets to
appoint people to these positions – but the Senate
must approve these appointments

3. Federal
Bureaucracy
◦ All of the departments and agencies that assist the
President in carrying out the laws (his job as Chief
Executive)
◦ all the people responsible for making sure the many
departments of government run effectively and
efficiently
◦ They can be political appointees or civil service
workers

4. Federal
Bureaucracy
Political Appointees
◦ top leadership jobs given to people who have
proven their ability and/or loyalty to the
president (Spoils System or Patronage)
◦ employment usually ends when the president
leaves office
Civil Service Workers
◦ individuals hired to a government job based on
their ability on a government test (Merit
System)
◦ will keep their job after the president leaves
office

5. Political
Appointees
Spoils System
◦ begun by President Andrew Jackson
◦ previous practice of appointing people to
government jobs as a reward for their political
support
◦ with each new president new appointments would
be made
◦ outlawed by the Pendleton Act (Civil Service
Reform Act of 1883)

6. Pendleton Act
Civil Service Reform Act of 1883
The assassination of President Garfield by a man who
was denied a government job led to an outcry for
political reform to end the spoils system
President Arthur listened to popular demands to clean
up the corruption and inefficiency of government

7. Pendleton Act
Civil Service Reform Act of 1883
◦ government jobs should be awarded on the basis of
merit
◦ it provided for selection of government employees
through competitive examinations
◦ it also made it unlawful to fire or demote covered
employees for political reasons
◦ government employees would not be forced to make
political contributions
◦ no officeholder could manage election campaigns for
political organizations
◦ set up a Civil Service Commission to enforce the law.

8. Civil Service
Workers
Merit System
◦ government workers are hired based on their
merit – how well they do on rigorous written
exams about the job desired
◦ basis for the civil service system
a. Civil Service System
◦ practice of hiring government workers based
on who scored the highest on tests for the
specific job applied for

9. W
A
V
E
S
What is this message
this cartoon is trying to
make?