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:
“O that estates, degrees, and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Books are for the most part willfully and hastily written, as parts of a system to supply a want real or imagined.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)