Cronyism is awarding positions, jobs, contracts, loans, privileges, or advantages to friends or colleagues. It is used especially in politics, when referring to partiality between politicians and businesses.[1] A person who supports or partakes in cronyism is referred to as acrony,cronie, orcronyist.
Cronyism occurs when appointing "cronies" to positions of authority regardless of their qualifications.[2] This is in contrast to ameritocracy, in which appointments are made based on merit. Politically, "cronyism" is derogatorily used to imply buying and selling favors, such as votes in legislative bodies, doing favors to organizations, or giving desirable ambassadorships to exotic places.[3]
The wordcrony first appeared in 17th-century London, according to theOxford English Dictionary; it is believed to be derived from theGreek wordχρόνιος (chronios), meaning'long term'.[4]
Government officials are particularly susceptible to accusations of cronyism, as they spendtaxpayers' money. Many democratic governments are encouraged to practice administrativetransparency inaccounting and contracting, but there often is no clear delineation of when an appointment to government office is "cronyism".[5]
In the private sector, cronyism exists in organizations, often termed "the old boys' club" or "the golden circle"; again, the boundary between cronyism and "networking" is difficult to delineate.[6]
Cronyism describes relationships existing among mutual acquaintances in private organizations where business, business information, and social interaction are exchanged among influential personnel. This is termedcrony capitalism,[5] and is an ethical breach of the principles of themarket economy; in advanced economies, crony capitalism is a breach of market regulations.
The economic and social costs of cronyism are paid by society. Those costs are in the form of reduced business opportunity for the majority of the population, reduced competition in the marketplace, inflated consumer goods prices, decreased economic performance, inefficient business investment cycles, reduced motivation in affected organizations, and the diminution of economically productive activity.[6]
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