cronyism

Favouritism to friends without regard for their qualifications; especially (politics), in their appointment to political positions.

[T]he present structure of the collective bargaining agreement, combined with nepotism and cronyism and other abuses in employment and referral practices, have perpetuated the effects of the past discrimination, […]

[Robert L.] Hagist began what he called an "18 month reform program" that included revised warehouse procedures and measures to prevent the leakages, shortages, cronyisms, and politicking attributed to the managers and clerks of the various stores.

The condition of being friends; friendship; also, the ability or inclination to make friends.

[T]he preacher […] was reading to them the duty of loving one another as Christians, But only particularly and exclusively were they to love one another "as Christians," that is as confederates and caballers together in a particular interest, distinct from that of the great family of mankind; […] The benefit to themselves from this Free-masonry sectarian cronyism, (for which the uninitiated world is so much obliged to them) was, to be, that […] [t]he spirit of God was to bear witness with their spirits, and to settle the matter of faith with a degree of conviction, that should render reason superfluous and inquiry unnecessary.

Our friend the Old Crony, we see, for all his connoisseurship and crony-ism, his regard for a certain piquancy of perfection in the French dress and walk, and his wish that his fair countrywomen would "take steps" after their fashion, cannot get rid of the preference in which he was brought up for the beauty of the English countenance.