Luis Fernández-Galiano   The term ‘meritocracy’ was coined in 1958 by the sociologist Michael Young in a book which already then presented the concept in a dark light, The Rise of Meritocracy, where he warned of the danger of creating a new caste based on education and talen

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The current critique of meritocracy questions merit itself. Until very recently, the rejection of technocracy censored the one-dimensional character of its politics, but did not question technique itself; today, the attack on meritocracy rejects not

Michael J. Sandel   When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, the United States, like many other countries, was unprepared. As the contagion spread, the wealthiest country in the world found itself unable to provide even the medical masks and other protective gear that

Adrian Wooldridge   How Meritocracy Made the Modern World