Editing Meritocracy (section)

===Books===
====The Meritocracy Trap====

In his 2019 book ''The Meritocracy Trap'', [[Daniel Markovits]] poses that meritocracy is responsible for the exacerbation of [[social stratification]], to the detriment of much of the general population. He introduces the idea of "snowball inequality", a perpetually widening gap between elite workers and members of the middle class. While the elite obtain exclusive positions thanks to their wealth of demonstrated merit, they occupy jobs and oust middle class workers from the core of economic events. The elites use their high earnings to secure the best education for their own children, so that they may enter the world of work with a competitive advantage over those who did not have the same opportunities. Thus, the cycle continues with each generation.

In this case, the middle class suffers decreased opportunities for individual prosperity and financial success. While it is impossible to quantify the exact effects of this social divide on the middle class, the [[opioid epidemic]], dramatic rises in "[[Disease of despair|deaths of despair]]"<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Case |first1=Anne |title=Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism |last2=Angus |first2=Deaton |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2020 |isbn=9780691190785}}</ref> (suicides, mental health and alcoholism), and lowering life expectancy in these meritocratic societies are often listed as results of it. It is not only the middle class who suffer the negative effects of meritocracy, however. The societal elite have to pay a significant price for their hectic working life. Many admit suffering from physical and mental health issues, inability to sustain a good quality personal life and a lack of time spent with their families. Children of the social elite are often forced into a highly competitive educational environment from a young age, which continues throughout school, university, and into their work life. Through this argument, the author attacks the idea of a meritocracy as a fair means to evaluate and reward the most skilled and hard-working members of society.

Markovits proposes a different approach to meritocracy, one where socioeconomic life conveniences are freely distributed to the people who are sufficiently successful at the things they are doing rather than creating an environment of ongoing competition. He calls for reform of economic roles, organizations and institutions in order to include a wider population and hence narrow the increasing inequality gap by questioning the social hegemony of high-profile workers, and intervening with redistribution of earnings, working hours and social identity on behalf of middle class workers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Markovits |first=Daniel |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/548174/the-meritocracy-trap-by-daniel-markovits/ |title=The Meritocracy Trap |date=2019-09-10 |publisher=Penguin Random House |access-date=30 April 2021 |archive-date=30 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430215329/https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/548174/the-meritocracy-trap-by-daniel-markovits/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Karma |first=Roge |title=The Meritocracy Trap, explained |url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/24/20919030/meritocracy-book-daniel-markovits-inequality-rich |journal=Vox |year=2019 |access-date=30 April 2021 |archive-date=14 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514063825/https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/24/20919030/meritocracy-book-daniel-markovits-inequality-rich |url-status=live }}</ref>

====The Tyranny of Merit====
In his book ''The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?'', the American political philosopher [[Michael Sandel]] argues that the meritocratic ideal has become a moral and political problem for contemporary Western societies. He contends that the meritocratic belief that personal success is solely based on individual merit and effort has led to a neglection of the common good, the erosion of solidarity, and the rise of inequality. Sandel's criticism concerns the widespread notion that those who achieve success deserve it because of their intelligence, talent and effort. Instead, he argues that this belief is flawed since it ignores the role of luck and external circumstances, such as social and external factors, which are beyond an individual's control.<ref name="Sandel">{{cite book |last1=Sandel |first1=M. |title=The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? |date=2020 |publisher=Allan Lane |isbn=9780241407608}}</ref>

As a consequence, Sandel attributes the increasing gap between economic "winners and losers", the decline of civic engagement and the rise of populism to the meritocratic ideal. In addition, he argues that the promise of meritocracy creates an elite that is disconnected from society and lacks empathy for those, who are left behind. Elite institutions including the Ivy League and Wall Street have corrupted the virtue, according to Sandel, and the sense of who deserves power.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Michael Sandel: Why the elites don't deserve their status |url=https://unherd.com/thepost/michael-sandel/ |access-date=2022-05-24 |website=UnHerd |language=en-GB |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519155829/https://unherd.com/thepost/michael-sandel/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ultimately, the argument of [[Michael Sandel]] is that "meritocracy today functions less as an alternative to inequality than as its primary justification".<ref name="How Meritocracy fuels Inequality">{{cite journal |last1=Sandel |first1=Michael |title=How Meritocracy fuels Inequality - Part I |journal=American Journal of Law and Equality |date=2021 |issue=1}}</ref> Thus, he makes the case for a reconsideration of our understanding of success and the common good including public debates regarding the extent of the [[welfare state]]. According to Sandel, this entails a deliberation about what constitutes a contribution to the common good and how these ought to be rewarded. Hence, he appeals to move beyond [[distributive justice]] towards contributive justice, that is "creating conditions to enable everyone to contribute to the common good and to receive honor and recognition for having done so".<ref name="How Meritocracy fuels Inequality"/> To this end, he suggest public policies such as more [[progressive tax]]ation to reduce economic inequalities.<ref name="Sandel" />

====Imagined Meritocracy====
Most of the criticism against meritocracy, including Sandel's argument in "The Tyranny of Merit", treats "meritocracy" as a mechanism that allocates rewards in accordance with one's abilities, but violates [[substantive equality]]. Casting doubt on this fundamental assumption, the Japanese sociologist Satoshi Araki examined whether economic outcomes are linked to individuals' skills levels in the United States. He found that the economic return to educational qualifications per se was significantly larger than that to cognitive skills and that intergenerational inequality had been substantially formed via credentials rather than abilities - that is why the unfair situation like "side doors" may exist. Araki therefore argues that contemporary America is a typical credential society, where credentialism prevails over skills-based meritocracy, but people are navigated to misbelieve that their society is meritocratic. Calling this situation "imagined meritocracy", he underscores the importance of examining the credential/meritocratic nature of a society by distinguishing the function of educational credentials as such and that of actual abilities both conceptually and empirically lest we mislead scholarly/policy discussion and public debate based on the imagined discourse of meritocracy.<ref name="Araki">{{cite journal |last1=Araki |first1=S. |title=Beyond 'Imagined Meritocracy': Distinguishing the Relative Power of Education and Skills in Intergenerational Inequality
 |journal=Sociology |date=2023 |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=975–992 |doi=10.1177/00380385231156093|s2cid=257382308 }}</ref>