define civil service act
CIVIL SERVICE ACT. Early advocates of a civil service believed that it was necessary to reform the spoils system, a process by which an individual who supported the election of a candidate was rewarded with a position in the government.he popular feeling against political patronage was running so strong that both Democrats and Republicans joined forces to enact the first Civil Service Act, known as the Pendleton Act (22 Stat. 403), in 1883.