The fictional idea that society is necessarily ruled by those who deserve to rule. It is fictional because there is no generally agreed understanding of who merits what. More obviously, the current economic circumstances that allow some to inherit vast wealth, and then to exercise power, speak emphatically against regarding any modern society as ‘meritocratic’, unless in an ironic sense. The Philosopher Alain de Botton argues that the very idea of meritocracy is insulting and injurious to those who do not have any power – by implying that they are without merit also. (See also ‘Meritocracy‘.)

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