# Cronyism

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Government favoritism

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**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 a *crony*, *cronie*, or *cronyist*.

Cronyism occurs when appointing "cronies" to positions of authority regardless of their qualifications.[2] This is in contrast to a *[meritocracy](/source/Meritocracy)*, 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]

## Etymology

The word *crony* first appeared in 17th-century London, according to the *[Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary)*; it is believed to be derived from the [Greek](/source/Greek_language) word χρόνιος (*chronios*), meaning 'long term'.[4]

## Concept

See also: [Clientelism](/source/Clientelism), [Nepotism](/source/Nepotism), and [Political corruption](/source/Political_corruption)

Government officials are particularly susceptible to accusations of cronyism, as they spend [taxpayers](/source/Tax)' money. Many democratic governments are encouraged to practice administrative [transparency](/source/Transparency_(humanities)) in [accounting](/source/Accounting) 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](/source/Old_boy_network)" 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 termed [crony capitalism](/source/Crony_capitalism),[5] and is an ethical breach of the principles of the [market economy](/source/Market_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]

## See also

- [Cartel](/source/Cartel)

- [Cronies of Ferdinand Marcos](/source/Cronies_of_Ferdinand_Marcos)

- [Crony capitalism](/source/Crony_capitalism)

- [Crony-capitalism index](/source/Crony-capitalism_index)

- [In-group favoritism](/source/In-group_favoritism)

- [Interest group](/source/Interest_group)

- [Nepotism](/source/Nepotism)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["cronyism American English definition and synonyms - Macmillan Dictionary"](http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/cronyism).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["the definition of cronyism"](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cronyism?s=t). dictionary.reference.com.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Nadler, Judy; Schulman, Miriam. ["Favoritism, Cronyism, and Nepotism"](http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/government_ethics/introduction/cronyism.html). Santa Clara University. Retrieved 20 June 2013.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Oxford Dictionaries - Dictionary, Thesaurus, & Grammar"](http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/crony?view=uk). Retrieved 2 July 2015.{{[cite web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_web)}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_deprecated_archival_service))

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-ced_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-ced_5-1) ["Crony Capitalism: Unhealthy Relations Between Business and Government"](https://www.ced.org/cronycapitalism). *CED.com*. Committee for Economic Development.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Staff_2010_6-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Staff_2010_6-1) Staff (2010). ["Do Old Boys' Clubs Make The Market More Efficient?"](https://thefreemarketeers.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/do-old-boys-clubs-make-the-market-more-efficient/). The Free Marketeers. Retrieved 26 April 2012.

## Further reading

- Begley, Thomas M.; Khatri, Naresh; Tsang, Eric W. K. (2010). "Networks and cronyism: A social exchange analysis". *Asia Pacific Journal of Management*. **27** (2): 281–297. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1007/s10490-009-9137-4](https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10490-009-9137-4). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [143799762](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:143799762).

- [Bryce, Robert](/source/Robert_Bryce_(writer)) (2004). [*Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate*](https://books.google.com/books?id=ykSDtAEACAAJ). PublicAffairs. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781586481889](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781586481889). [LCCN](/source/LCCN_(identifier)) [2003070694](https://lccn.loc.gov/2003070694).

- Khatri, Naresh; Tsang, Eric W. K.; Begley, Thomas M. (2006). ["Cronyism: A Cross-Cultural Analysis"](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5223184). *Journal of International Business Studies*. **37** (1): 61–75. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400171](https://doi.org/10.1057%2Fpalgrave.jibs.8400171). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [3875215](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3875215). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [18930227](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:18930227). [Also in T. G. Andrews and R. Mead (Eds.), Cross Cultural Management, Volume 2 -The Impact of Culture 1: 126–150. Routledge, UK.]

- Khatri, Naresh; Tsang, Eric W. K.; Begley, Thomas M. (2003). ["Cronyism: The Downside of Social Networking"](https://doi.org/10.5465%2Fambpp.2003.13792813). *Academy of Management Proceedings*. **2003**: C1–C6. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.5465/ambpp.2003.13792813](https://doi.org/10.5465%2Fambpp.2003.13792813).

- Khatri, Naresh; Tsang, Eric W. K. (2003). ["Antecedents and Consequences of Cronyism in Organizations"](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226026426). *Journal of Business Ethics*. **43** (4): 289–303. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1023/A:1023081629529](https://doi.org/10.1023%2FA%3A1023081629529). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [142479179](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:142479179).

- Diwan, Ishac; Haidar, Jamal Ibrahim (2021). ["Political Connections Reduce Job Creation: Firm-level Evidence from Lebanon"](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220388.2020.1849622). *Journal of Development Studies*. **57** (8): 1373–1396. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1080/00220388.2020.1849622](https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00220388.2020.1849622). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [229717871](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:229717871).

- Hudson, Sarah; Claasen, Cyrlene (2017). "Nepotism and Cronyism as a Cultural Phenomenon?". *The Handbook of Business and Corruption*: 95–118. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1108/978-1-78635-445-720161006](https://doi.org/10.1108%2F978-1-78635-445-720161006). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-78635-446-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-78635-446-4).

## External links

Look up ***[cronyism](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Search/cronyism)*** in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

- "[Favoritism, Cronyism, and Nepotism](https://www.scu.edu/government-ethics/resources/what-is-government-ethics/favoritism-cronyism-and-nepotism/)". Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, [Santa Clara University](/source/Santa_Clara_University).

- [SuperNews: Hurricane Katrina](http://www.current.tv/pods/supernews/PD00567) - A political flash cartoon about the cronyism surrounding [Michael D. Brown](/source/Michael_D._Brown) and [Hurricane Katrina](/source/Hurricane_Katrina).

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Cronyism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronyism) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronyism?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.