meritocracy

meritocracy, political, social, or economic system in which individuals are assigned to positions of power, influence, or reward solely on the basis of their abilities and achievements and not on the basis of their social, cultural, or economic background or irrelevant personal characteristics. Meritocracy represents a rejection of hereditary aristocracy and nepotism. The theory of meritocracy presupposes the possibility of equality of opportunity.

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Plato, marble portrait bust copied from an original of the 4th century bce; in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.

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The basic elements of the concept of meritocracy are displayed in the Republic, a dialogue by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (428/427–348/347 bce), who advocated a society in which each person would belong to one of three classes—rulers (philosophers), guardians (soldiers), and producers (farmers and craftsmen)—based on their natural abilities. A much later, historical example of the meritocratic stance was that of Napoleon I (1769–1821), who claimed (while in exile in St. Helena) that his maxim as leader of France had been “la carrière est ouverte aux talents” (“career is open to talent”), regardless of one’s birthplace or roots.

Meritocracy as a social-scientific concept was formally introduced in the mid-1950s by the British industrial sociologist Alan Fox, who argued that meritocracy was a pernicious form of social organization that would exacerbate inequality and social stratification based on “occupational status.” Fox’s analysis anticipated the treatment of meritocracy in The Rise of the Meritocracy, 1870–2033: An Essay on Education and Equality (1958), by the British sociologist Michael Young, a satirical dystopian novel based on his 1955 doctoral dissertation. Young derided the “tripartite system” of education that was common in his native England at the time, where “merit,” as reflected in students’ performances on school exams at a young age, determined the type of secondary education they would receive (academic, technical, or practical) and thus effectively dictated the social class to which they would belong. Until the 1970s, when the Education Act of 1976 introduced a system of generally comprehensive and uniform secondary education, the tripartite system contributed to a decrease in social mobility, as the new merit-based elite became hereditary.

The negative connotations of the term “meritocracy” eventually subsided, as an increasing number of scholars and journalists emphasized the social and economic benefits of meritocratic practices. For example, in his book The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World (2021), the British author Adrian Wooldridge, a longtime writer for The Economist magazine, celebrated meritocracy for enabling people to “get ahead in life on the basis of their natural talents,” for securing equality of opportunity “by providing education for all,” for preventing job discrimination on the basis of irrelevant characteristics such as race and sex, and for encouraging the awarding of jobs through “open competition rather than patronage and nepotism.” Since the 1980s several government leaders and other politicians in Britain and the United States have publicly and repeatedly dedicated themselves to the ideal of meritocracy. Their number includes the British prime ministers Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, and David Cameron and the U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

Notwithstanding the affordances of meritocracy, the very nature of merit and how it can be assessed can be challenging to discern and have thus been subject to debate. Evaluations, aptitude and personality tests, and other forms of assessment are routinely used to determine merit, yet they may fall short of fostering meritocratic values, as suggested by Young. Meritocracy has also been challenged by critics on the grounds that it masks discrimination stemming from race, gender, class, or other social categories. Perhaps the most formidable criticism of meritocracy is that, far from bridging social divisions, it engenders a new “performance” elite whose initially earned advantages serve to sustain their dominance.