POS-1041 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Spoils System, Whiskey Ring, Merit System
Document Summary
Congress also authorized hiring an attorney general to give legal advice. The larger the departments became, the got subdivided into more specialized offices (bureaus) Congress agreed that each exec. dept. should be headed by a single official responsible for its operations: president had the sole right of removal. Congress leveraged its authority to establish executive branch agencies and set their annual. Solution: appoint civil servants of character and ability who were respected by their communities (the problem of delegation was to be met by choosing the right sort of people as agents) Officials sometimes required to post bonds of money or property that they would forfeit is they failed to perform their duties; heavy fines were imposed for giving or taking bribes. Democratization of the civil service: the spoils system. Jackson thus advocated for rotation in office in order to democratize the civil service.
