Myth of meritocracy
Myth of meritocracy is a phrase arguing that
Inevitability
It has been argued that meritocracy under capitalism will always remain a myth because, as Michael Kinsley states, "Inequalities of income, wealth, status are inevitable, and in a capitalist system even necessary."[1] Even though many economists admit that too much disparity between the rich and the poor can destabilize society politically and economically, increases in wealth disparity under capitalism are expected to grow over time since, and French economist Thomas Piketty argues that capitalism tends to reward the owners of capital with a greater and greater share of the economy's output, while wage-earners get a smaller and smaller share.[10] Rising wealth disparity increasingly undermines faith in the existence of meritocracy, as beliefs in equal opportunity and social equality lose credibility among lower classes who recognize the preexisting reality of limited class mobility as a feature of the neoliberal version of capitalism.[11][12] At the same time, the elite use their comparatively greater wealth, power, and influence to unequally benefit themselves and ensure their continued upper class status at the expense of lower classes, which further undermines beliefs in the existence of meritocracy.[13][14]
Cornell University economist Robert H. Frank rejects meritocracy in his book Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy.[15] He describes how chance plays a significant role in deciding who gets what that is not objectively based on merit. He does not discount the importance of hard work, but, using psychological studies, mathematical formulae, and examples, demonstrates that among groups of people performing at a high level, chance (luck) plays an enormous role in an individual's success.
Function
The myth of meritocracy has been identified by scholars[who?] as a tool of the elite of a society to uphold and justify the reproduction of existing economic, social, and political hierarchies.[4][6][16][17]
Class mobility
The myth of meritocracy is used to maintain the belief that class mobility is widely attainable. As Daniel Markovits describes, "meritocracy excludes people outside of the elite, excludes middle class people and working class people from schooling, from good jobs, and from status and income, and then insults them by saying that the reason they’re excluded is that they don’t measure up, rather than that there’s a structural block to their inclusion."[14] Furthermore, Markovits explicitly denounces the myth of the purported "American meritocracy", which for him "has become precisely what it was invented to combat: a mechanism for the dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations."[18] Phrases such as "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" have been identified as concealing the myth of meritocracy by placing the onus of upward class mobility solely on the individual while intentionally ignoring structural conditions.[17] The minority of individuals who manage to overcome structural conditions and achieve upward class mobility are used as examples to support the idea that meritocracy exists.[19]
In the
In India, the myth of meritocracy has been identified as a mechanism for the elite to justify the structure of the caste system.[16]
Racism
The myth of meritocracy has been identified by scholars as promoting the
Tyranny of merit
References
- ^ a b Kinsley, Michael (18 January 1990). "The Myth of Meritocracy". The Washington Post.
- S2CID 1016312.
- hdl:10871/129789.
- ^ ISBN 9781452269276.
- ^ Grover, Ed (25 October 2017). "The myth of meritocracy is increasing inequality, book argues". PHYS.org.
- ^ ISBN 9781138889552.
- ^ Markovits, Daniel (9 July 2019). "How the 'meritocracy' feeds inequality". CNN.
- ^ Cooper, Marianne (1 December 2015). "The False Promise of Meritocracy". The Atlantic.
- ^ Reich, Robert (15 April 2019). "Robert Reich: The myth of meritocracy". Salon.
- ^ Ydstie, John (18 May 2014). "The Merits Of Income Inequality: What's The Right Amount?". NPR.
- ^ Thrasher, Steven W. (5 December 2015). "Income inequality happens by design. We can't fix it by tweaking capitalism". The Guardian.
- ^ Hasanov, Fuad; Izraeli, Oded (February 2012). "How Much Inequality Is Necessary for Growth?". Harvard Business Review.
- New York Mag.
- ^ a b Francis, Lizzy (20 September 2019). "The Myth of Meritocracy Is The Real Criminal In The College Admissions Scandal". Fatherly.
- ^ Princeton University Press, 2016
- ^ a b Nathan, Andrew J. (May 2020). "The Caste of Merit: Engineering Education in India". Foreign Affairs.
- ^ ISBN 9781532668463.
- ^ Cited in: Appiah, Kwame Anthony (19 October 2018). "The myth of meritocracy: who really gets what they deserve?". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
- ^ S2CID 145796186.
- ^ Gould, Elise (10 October 2012). "U.S. lags behind peer countries in mobility". Economic Policy Institute.
- ^ Rank, Mark R; Eppard, Lawrence M (13 March 2021). "The American Dream of upward mobility is broken. Look at the numbers". The Guardian.
- S2CID 33408213.
- ISBN 9780313386534.
- ISBN 9781442203075.
- ISBN 9780252070273.
- – via ScienceDirect.
- ISBN 9780374289980.
- ^ Coman, Julian (6 September 2020). "Michael Sandel: 'The populist backlash has been a revolt against the tyranny of merit'". The Guardian.