MERITOCRACY
Meritocracy is rule by those chosen on the principle of
merit. The principle of merit is consistent with liberal theory
and assumes equality of opportunity and
occupational advancement based on achievement rather than ascription.
Emile Durkheim's notion of the ‘spontaneous division
of labour’ and the argument of Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore (1945) on the
function of inequality both depend on the belief that
in a liberal society Meritocracy will prevail. People will be rewarded on the basis of
talent or merit and that the more talented and thus meritorious will come to occupy the
more important positions in society.
Putting Meritocracy in its
Place: The Logic of Performance in the United States, Brazil and Japan - Livia
Martins Pinheiro Neves, Universidad Federal Fluminense, Brazil
Critique of Anthropology, Vol. 20, No. 4, 333-358 (2000) © 2000 SAGE Publications
The aim of this article is to explore two of the basic attributes of modernity - equality
and meritocracy - in a cross-cultural perspective. Based on empirical research in the USA,
Brazil and Japan this article explores the cultural content of those categories and their
links with the different ways these societies build their notion of the individual - as
proposed by Dumont (1992). This article presents a new contribution to the discussion on
modernity, in the sense that it extends this discussion to other societies where these
values were not first articulated but to where they have spread and where they have found
some room for themselves.
New racism, meritocracy and individualism: constraining
affirmative action in education
Martha Augoustinos, University of Adelaide, Keith Tuffin, Massey University, Danielle
Every, University of Adelaide, Discourse & Society, Vol. 16, No. 3, (2005) © 2005
SAGE Publications
This article presents a discursive analysis of student talk on disadvantage and
affirmative action from two focus group discussions on ‘race’ relations in
Australia. Our analysis builds upon previous research in the discursive tradition on
affirmative action and demonstrates how participants draw on resources, which construct
affirmative action as largely problematic. Liberal principles such as individualism,
merit, and egalitarianism were recurrently drawn upon to justify, argue and legitimate
opposition to affirmative action. Speakers managed their opposition to affirmative action
while presenting as fair, principled and lacking in prejudice. One argument, which was
commonly deployed, constructed affirmative action as undermining meritocratic principles
and ideals. This meritocratic discourse has a self-sufficient, taken-for-granted quality
which participants assumed to be a moral and normative standard that needed to be
protected and upheld. This argument was also associated with a closely related one that
‘everyone should be treated equally or the same’, regardless of social
background. Although our analysis emphasizes the deployment of discursive resources that
function primarily to uphold the ideals of meritocracy, individualism and equality,
participants did produce talk that on occasion challenged the ideology of individual
achievement and acknowledged the existence of Aboriginal disadvantage. We discuss how
these contradictions are reflective of the competing values of egalitarianism and
individualism in western liberal democracies like Australia and how the language of the
‘new racism’ is framed by such ideological dilemmas and ambivalence. -
das.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/3/315
Post-industrial Solidarity or Meritocracy?
John Andersen, Department of Social Sciences, Roskilde University, Denmark
Acta Sociologica, Vol. 42, No. 4, 375-385 (1999) © 1999 Scandinavian Sociological
Association
The article deals with present forms of social and system integration and discusses what
institutional reforms and new formations of actors and coalitions could counteract social
exclusion in a way that takes post-industrial conditions into account. The term 'social
exclusion' is primarily used in the European discourse, while the concept of an
'underclass' is normally used in the Anglo-Saxon discourse. These two discourses take very
different approaches to what can be seen as the forces undermining societal harmony and
social coherence. A paradox is identified between the rejection of class theory in most
contemporary dominant social theory and the emergence of a new 'underclass'. It is argued
that, today, the real missing link is the analysis of the growing power of elites. Whereas
the underclass has been almost over-researched, the analysis of new elite formation,
collective action, and coalition-building by powerful actors is almost absent. Therefore,
the concept of social exclusion should be linked to the concept of social polarization. -
asj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/42/4/375
The Effects of Meritocracy Beliefs on Women's Well-Being After First-Time Gender
Discrimination - Mindi D. Foster, E. Micha Tsarfati, Wilfrid Laurier University
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 12, 1730-1738 (2005) © 2005
Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
This study examined how meritocracy beliefs may buffer women from the negative
psychological effects of an acute situation of gender discrimination. Although some
research indirectly suggests that believing that meritocracy exists may increase
wellbeing, group consciousness theories suggest that disbelieving that meritocracy exists
will enhance psychological adjustment to gender discrimination. Women who reported little
past experience with discrimination, and either believed or disbelieved that meritocracy
exists, were exposed to either a laboratory situation of discrimination or a
nondiscrimination failure (control) condition. Consistent with group consciousness
theories, women experiencing discrimination reported greater well-being if they
disbelieved that meritocracy exists than if they were believers. In contrast, women in the
control condition reported greater wellbeing if they believed that meritocracy exists than
if they were disbelievers. Implications for coping with discrimination are discussed. -
psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/31/12/1730
Is Northern Ireland an Educational Meritocracy?
Richard Breen, Nuffield College, Sociology, Vol. 37, No.4, (2003) © 2003 BSA Publications
Ltd.
In all developed societies the class position that individuals come to occupy
depends,inter alia, on their class origins, gender and ethnic group membership. It might
be argued that these inequalities had ‘meritocratic legitimation’ if it
transpired that they were largely the result of the differential distribution of merit
across sexes, classes or ethnic groups. In this paper I address the question of how far
Northern Ireland can be considered to be an educational meritocracy. In other words, to
what extent might inequalities according to class origin, gender and ethnic group
membership in the class positions that individuals attain be attributed, or legitimized,
according to differences between classes, genders and ethnic groups in average educational
attainment? The results suggest that in Northern Ireland, as in the cases of Britain
(Marshall and Swift, 1993; Breen and Goldthorpe, 1999,2001) and the Republic of Ireland
(Breen and Whelan, 1993), men and women and people from different class origins and ethnic
groups experience different chances of gaining access to better class positions, even when
they have the same level of educational attainment. In seeking to explain the results of
the analyses I draw on recent work that discusses and illustrates some of the difficulties
with the concept of ‘merit’ and with the attempt to equate meritocracy with a
diminishing role for ascription. - soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/37/4/657
Responding to Discrimination as a Function of Meritocracy Beliefs and Personal
Experiences: Testing the Model of Shattered Assumptions
Mindi D. Foster, Wilfrid Laurier University
Lisa Sloto, Richard Ruby, West Chester University
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, Vol. 9, No. 3, (2006) © 2006 SAGE
Publications
We examined whether the model of shattered assumptions (Janoff-Bulman, 1992) could be
applied to the reactions of victims of discrimination. Consistent with this model, it was
hypothesized that those whose positive world assumptions are inconsistent with their
negative experiences of discrimination would report more negative responses than those
whose world assumptions match their experience. Disadvantaged group (both gender and
ethnicity) members' responses to discrimination (self-esteem, collective action,
intergroup anxiety) were predicted from their meritocracy beliefs and personal experiences
of discrimination. Regression analyses showed a significant interaction between
meritocracy beliefs and personal discrimination such that among those who reported
personal discrimination, stronger beliefs that the meritocracy exists predicted decreased
self-esteem and collective action as well as increased intergroup anxiety. Among those who
reported little personal discrimination, stronger beliefs that the meritocracy exists
predicted increased self-esteem. Implications for promoting a critical view of the social
system is discussed. - gpi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/9/3/401
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