url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCYQFjAA&url=http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/Holcombe_Cronyism_web

of social justice, cronyism has an opportunity to play a
role. The rules will tend to favor the members of politically
well-connected groups at the expense of others.
This discussion is certainly not meant to minimize the
importance of social justice or the importance of equal
treatment under the law. Discrimination and institutionalized
injustice have been present in the United
States throughout much of its history. Race-based slavery
existed in the United States until 1865, but discriminatory
Jim Crow laws remained for another century.
Women did not receive the constitutional right to vote
until 1920, and they often did not have the same rights of
property ownership as men did. These are examples of
institutionalized discrimination, enforced by laws that
provided legal rights to some that were not available to
all. In these cases, the law granted privileges based on
impersonal characteristics such as race and gender. The
liberal remedy for such discrimination is to do away
with discriminatory laws so that the law treats everyone
equally. What often happens, however, is that when
oppressed groups gain sufficient political power to remedy
these violations of social justice, they use their power
not just to eliminate the discrimination but to enact new
laws that give them unique legal privileges. One group of
cronies replaces another.
When new policies knock down government-created
legal barriers or extend individual rights to a previously
disenfranchised group, social justice policies help create
a more liberal society and effectively eradicate privilege
by giving everyone the same rights. When policies grant
extra privileges to some groups that are not available to
other groups, however, cronyism will result because the
76 LIBERALISM AND CRONYISM