Understanding Meritocracy: From an Imagination of ‘Ideal’ to Producing ‘Myth’ and Beyond

MIchael Young satirizes a global society envisaged for the 21st century, in which all job appointments and rewards are determined solely by merit. Notable advancements in intelligence and ability testing were assumed to enable accurate performance projections and effective educational monitoring. Consequently, the influence of social obstacles such as socioeconomic class, family, race, and religion would be significantly mitigated. The system, however, has shifted to produce winners and losers, a phenomenon Sandel characterizes as hubris . We argue that this hubris stems from meritocracy’s roots in bureaucracy, grounded in a rationalized myth.