Merit System

The merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections. It is the opposite of the spoils system.

Famous quotes containing the words merit and/or system:

    Though learned, well-bred; and though well-bred, sincere;
    Modestly bold, and humanly severe:
    Who to a friend his faults can freely show,
    And gladly praise the merit of a foe?
    Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

    ... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.
    Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)