Editing Meritocracy (section)

==Notes==
{{Notelist|refs=
{{efn|name=fna|This is the history of the meritocracy in the technical sense. The vaguer definition of a meritocracy as a "rule by intelligence" has been applied to many ancient Greek, Indian, Chinese, and Jewish thinkers and statesmen. For example, the Sanhedrin, the legislature of [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|Ancient Israel]] and [[Kingdom of Judah]], is sometimes called as an "intellectual meritocracy", in the sense that its members were drawn from religious scribes and not the aristocracy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Elazar|first=Daniel Judah|title=The Jewish polity: Jewish political organization from Biblical times to the present|year=1985|publisher=Indiana University Press|page=127|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GntDdBeIOqwC&q=sanhedrin%20meritocracy&pg=PA127|isbn=978-0253331564}}</ref> Appointment was self-perpetuating, however, and new members were chosen personally by existing members.<ref>{{cite book |last=Novak|first=David |title=The Jewish social contract: an essay in political theology |year=2005|publisher=Princeton University Press |page=134 |ISBN=9780691122106 |quote=The Sanhedrin were appointed by those who were members when there was a vacancy}}</ref> These are not meritocracies in the administrative sense, in which merit is determined objectively as a "tested competency or ability."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Levinson|first1=David |last2=Cookson|first2=Peter W.|last3=Sadovnik |first3=lan R. |title=Education and sociology: an encyclopedia |year=2002 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |ISBN=9780815316152 |page=436}}</ref>}}
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