Meritocracy

As the suffix "-cracy" implies, meritocracy is strictly speaking a system of government based on rule by ability (merit) rather than by wealth or social position. In this context, "merit" means roughly intelligence plus effort. However, the word "meritocracy" is now often used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition, on the assumption that the winners do indeed deserve (merit) their resulting advantage. As a result, the word has acquired a connotation of Social Darwinism, and is used to describe aggressively competitive societies, with large inequality of income and wealth, contrasted with egalitarian societies.

Related Topics:
Government - Society - Social status - Competition - Connotation - Social Darwinism - Inequality - Egalitarian

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Meritocratic governments and organisations stress talent, formal education, and competence, rather than existing differences such as social class, ethnicity, or sex. In practice, research on social mobility indicates that all these supposedly neutral criteria favour the children of those who are already privileged in some way.

Related Topics:
Social class - Ethnicity - Sex - Social mobility

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In a representative democracy where power is theoretically in the hands of the elected representatives, meritocratic elements include the use of expert consultants to help formulate policies, and a meritocratic civil service to implement them. The perennial problem in advocating meritocracy is defining exactly what one means by merit.

Related Topics:
Representative democracy - Consultant - Civil service

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