Methods of Appointment.—There are three ways of making appointments. First, appointments may be made by some high executive officer, such as the President or the governor of a state, subject to the confirmation of a legislative body. Second, they may be made by the executive without the advice and consent of anyone else. Third, they may be made under civil service rules by a competitive examination.[[26]]
The merits and defects of confirmation.
Appointments with Confirmation.—In the national government practically all appointments of high importance, including heads of departments, ambassadors, judges, and so on, are made by the President subject to the consent of the Senate. The President nominates, but the final appointment depends upon confirmation by a majority of the senators (see p. [270]). So in state government the appointment of higher administrative officials is usually shared by the governor and the upper chamber of the state legislature. In the larger cities it has been the custom to require confirmation of the mayor’s appointments by the city council or the upper branch of it; but this requirement is now being generally abandoned. The purpose of requiring confirmation is to prevent too great a growth in power on the part of the chief executive; its effect has been to divide responsibility and it has resulted, very often, in poor appointments. It is good policy, in local and state government at least, to insist that the responsibility for appointments shall be centralized and not divided. In the national government, where the appointing power is of such enormous importance, and might, if unchecked, be so easily used to perpetuate a President in office, the safeguard of confirmation is more easily justified.
Appointments without Confirmation.—The practice of permitting a chief executive to make appointments without confirmation began in the large cities. New York made the start, many years ago, by allowing the mayor to appoint the heads of the city departments on his own responsibility. Since then the plan has spread widely and in some cases the states have given the governor a similar power. In other cases the confirmation has become, for the most part, a matter of routine, the understanding being that the governor has the real responsibility and hence should be left free to make his own selections.
The Civil Service System.
Giving the offices to politicians.
Patronage and Partisanship.—When appointments are made by an executive officer, with or without confirmation, or by a legislative body, there is always a danger that partisan motives will influence the selection. Nearly all executive and legislative officers are themselves partisan. They are themselves nominated, in most cases, by party conventions or primaries; they are elected with the aid of party workers; and they are therefore under obligation to help the party interest in any reasonable way. Now it has been commonly believed that one effective way of helping a party organization is to appoint prominent and active members of the party to public office, thus giving a reward for their work in the party’s behalf. Men who have helped a President or a governor to gain the party nomination and get elected do not usually allow these officials to forget their obligations when appointments are to be made. The appointing power, in other words, may be used as a means of bestowing “patronage”, or rewards for party service and it has been so used in all branches of American government.
Rise of the Spoils System.—In the earlier days of the Republic it was the custom to make appointments with little or no reference to party politics.[[27]] But with the election of Andrew Jackson officials were removed in large numbers to provide patronage for the leaders of the victorious political party. Jackson’s supporters frankly enunciated the doctrine that “to the victors belong the spoils”, hence the practice of displacing one set of officials and filling the vacant posts with another set became known as the “spoils system”. From this time to 1883, a full half-century, it was customary to remove large numbers of administrative officials whenever a new President came in. The notion spread that offices ought to be passed around; that four years was long enough for anyone to be on the public payroll, and that in a democracy everyone ought to have his share of the patronage.
The Iniquities of the Spoils System.—This doctrine, although it was for more than fifty years accepted by public opinion in the United States, rested upon a false conception of democratic government. It assumed the interests of the political party to be more important than efficiency in the government service. It assumed that administrative work could be well-enough performed by men who had no qualifications in the way of education or experience—nothing but a record of party service. The spoils system regarded public office in nation, state, and city as mere booty for the victorious hordes after an election, whereas public office is “a public trust”, as Grover Cleveland once quite rightly said. It is a privilege and a responsibility; not a right or a reward. No man has a right to hold public office merely because he belongs to the winning party. He has a right only when he is qualified to perform the functions which the tenure of public office involves.
Results of the spoils system.