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The Meritocracy Trap: Why Hard Work Isn't Always Enough
The American Dream, the bootstrapping myth, the idea that hard work guarantees success – these are powerful narratives woven into the fabric of our society. But what happens when the system designed to reward merit actually reinforces inequality? This is the core of "The Meritocracy Trap," a concept that challenges our fundamental assumptions about fairness and opportunity. This post will delve deep into this complex issue, exploring its mechanisms, consequences, and potential solutions. We'll examine how the very systems intended to promote equality can inadvertently create and perpetuate a cycle of disadvantage, leaving many feeling trapped despite their efforts.
Understanding the Meritocracy Trap: A System of its Own Making
The term "meritocracy trap," coined by Michael Sandel, describes a system where individuals are rewarded based on their perceived merit. This sounds fair, right? The problem arises when the criteria for determining "merit" are inherently biased.
H3: The Illusion of Equal Opportunity
The meritocratic ideal presupposes a level playing field. Everyone starts at the same point, and success is solely determined by individual effort and talent. However, this is far from reality. Factors such as socioeconomic background, access to quality education, and inherited wealth significantly influence an individual's opportunities, creating a system where those already privileged are better positioned to succeed, regardless of their relative merit compared to their less privileged counterparts.
H3: The High Cost of Success
Meritocratic systems often incentivize relentless competition. Individuals are pressured to constantly strive for more, accumulating credentials, chasing promotions, and sacrificing personal well-being in pursuit of success. This relentless pressure can lead to burnout, anxiety, and a sense of inadequacy, particularly for those who, despite their best efforts, fall short of achieving their goals. The system prioritizes outcomes over process, leaving many feeling like failures even when they have worked tirelessly.
The Perpetuation of Inequality: How the Trap Closes
The meritocracy trap isn't merely a temporary setback; it's a self-perpetuating cycle. Those who succeed often benefit from a network of contacts, resources, and social capital that are largely inaccessible to those starting from a disadvantaged position. This creates a feedback loop where privilege begets privilege.
H3: Inheritance and the Uneven Playing Field
Wealth is often passed down through generations, providing children of affluent families with significant advantages. They have access to better schools, tutors, and opportunities that allow them to build upon their inherited privilege. This isn't necessarily a matter of laziness or lack of talent but rather a reflection of the systemic inequalities embedded within the meritocratic framework.
H3: The Credentialization Race
The emphasis on credentials – degrees, certifications, awards – further exacerbates the problem. While credentials can be indicators of competence, the pursuit of them often becomes an end in itself, driving up costs and creating barriers to entry for those without the resources to acquire them. This creates a system where individuals are judged not on their actual abilities but on their ability to accumulate credentials, further benefiting the already privileged.
Escaping the Trap: Towards a More Equitable Future
The meritocracy trap isn't insurmountable. Addressing this issue requires a multi-pronged approach focused on leveling the playing field and challenging the underlying assumptions that drive inequality.
H3: Investing in Early Childhood Education
Providing high-quality early childhood education for all children, regardless of socioeconomic background, is crucial. This lays the foundation for future success, mitigating the impact of early disadvantages.
H3: Promoting Equitable Access to Higher Education
Making higher education more affordable and accessible, through measures such as increased financial aid and scholarships, is vital. This ensures that talent and ambition are not stifled by financial constraints.
H3: Rethinking Success Metrics
We need to move beyond a solely outcome-based definition of success. Valuing effort, resilience, and personal well-being alongside achievement can help reduce the pressure-cooker environment that fuels the meritocracy trap.
Conclusion: Redefining Merit and Rebuilding Opportunity
The meritocracy trap is a complex issue with no easy solutions. It requires a fundamental shift in how we view success, opportunity, and the role of social systems in shaping individual outcomes. By acknowledging the inherent biases within meritocratic systems and actively working to address them, we can build a more just and equitable society where hard work truly translates into opportunity for all.
FAQs:
Q1: Is meritocracy completely flawed? A1: No, meritocracy has the potential to be a fair system. The problem lies in its imperfect implementation, where systemic inequalities skew the playing field, rendering the system unfair in practice.
Q2: How can I personally avoid falling into the meritocracy trap? A2: Focus on developing skills and knowledge that are valuable, prioritize your well-being, and advocate for policy changes that promote greater equality.
Q3: What role does social mobility play in the meritocracy trap? A3: Low social mobility is a key indicator of the meritocracy trap. It demonstrates that individuals are often constrained by their starting point, regardless of their efforts.
Q4: Are there any successful examples of mitigating the meritocracy trap? A4: Some Scandinavian countries have implemented policies that promote greater social mobility and reduce inequality, providing examples of what's possible.
Q5: What's the difference between meritocracy and equality of opportunity? A5: Meritocracy aims to reward merit, but often fails to address unequal starting points. Equality of opportunity seeks to create a level playing field before merit is assessed.
| the meritocracy trap: The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits, 2020 Even in the midst of runaway economic inequality and dangerous social division, it remains an axiom of modern life that meritocracy reigns supreme and promises to open opportunity to all. The idea that reward should follow ability and effort is so entrenched in our psyche that, even as society divides itself at almost every turn, all sides can be heard repeating meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we think we are. But what if, both up and down the social ladder, meritocracy is a sham? Today, meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to resist- a mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations. Upward mobility has become a fantasy, and the embattled middle classes are now more likely to sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time, meritocracy now ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top, requiring rich adults to work with crushing intensity, exploiting their expensive educations in order to extract a return. All this is not the result of deviations or retreats from meritocracy but rather stems directly from meritocracy's successes. This is the radical argument that The Meritocracy Trap prosecutes with rare force, comprehensive research, and devastating persuasion. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits, 2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal – that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding – reigns supreme. Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we are. It sustains the American dream. But what if, both up and down the social ladder, meritocracy is a sham? Today, meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to resist: a mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations. Upward mobility has become a fantasy, and the embattled middle classes are now more likely to sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time, meritocracy now ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top, requiring rich adults to work with crushing intensity, exploiting their expensive educations in order to extract a return. All this is not the result of deviations or retreats from meritocracy but rather stems directly from meritocracy’s successes. This is the radical argument that Daniel Markovits prosecutes with rare force. Markovits is well placed to expose the sham of meritocracy. Having spent his life at elite universities, he knows from the inside the corrosive system we are trapped within. Markovits also knows that, if we understand that meritocratic inequality produces near-universal harm, we can cure it. When The Meritocracy Trap reveals the inner workings of the meritocratic machine, it also illuminates the first steps outward, towards a new world that might once again afford dignity and prosperity to the American people. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits, 2019-09-10 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal – that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding – reigns supreme. Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we are. It sustains the American dream. But what if, both up and down the social ladder, meritocracy is a sham? Today, meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to resist: a mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations. Upward mobility has become a fantasy, and the embattled middle classes are now more likely to sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time, meritocracy now ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top, requiring rich adults to work with crushing intensity, exploiting their expensive educations in order to extract a return. All this is not the result of deviations or retreats from meritocracy but rather stems directly from meritocracy’s successes. This is the radical argument that Daniel Markovits prosecutes with rare force. Markovits is well placed to expose the sham of meritocracy. Having spent his life at elite universities, he knows from the inside the corrosive system we are trapped within. Markovits also knows that, if we understand that meritocratic inequality produces near-universal harm, we can cure it. When The Meritocracy Trap reveals the inner workings of the meritocratic machine, it also illuminates the first steps outward, towards a new world that might once again afford dignity and prosperity to the American people. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Power Law Sebastian Mallaby, 2022-01-25 From an award-winning financial historian comes the gripping, character-driven story of venture capital and the world it made Innovations rarely come from experts. Jeff Bezos was not a bookseller; Elon Musk was not in the auto industry. When it comes to innovation, a legendary venture capitalist told Sebastian Mallaby, the future cannot be predicted, it can only be discovered. Most attempts at discovery fail, but a few succeed at such a scale that they more than make up for everything else. That extreme ratio of success and failure is the power law that drives venture capital, Silicon Valley, the tech sector, and, by extension, the world. Drawing on unprecedented access to the most celebrated venture capitalists of all time, award-winning financial historian Sebastian Mallaby tells the story of this strange tribe of financiers who have funded the world's most successful companies, from Google to SpaceX to Alibaba. With a riveting blend of storytelling and analysis, The Power Law makes sense of the seeming randomness of success in venture capital, an industry that relies, for good and ill, on gut instinct and personality rather than spreadsheets and data. We learn the unvarnished truth about some of the most iconic triumphs and infamous disasters in the history of tech, from the comedy of errors that was the birth of Apple to the venture funding that fostered hubris at WeWork and Uber to the industry's notorious lack of women and ethnic minorities. Now the power law echoes around the world: it has transformed China's digital economy beyond recognition, and London is one of the top cities for venture capital investment. By taking us so deeply into the VCs' game, The Power Law helps us think about our own future through their eyes. |
| the meritocracy trap: Plutocrats Chrystia Freeland, 2012-10-25 Forget the 1% - it's time to get to grips with the 0.1% ... There has always been some gap between rich and poor, but it has never been wider - and now the rich are getting wealthier at such breakneck speed that the middle classes are being squeezed out. While the wealthiest 10% of Americans, for example, receive half the nation's income, the real money flows even higher up, in the top 0.1%. As a transglobal class of highly successful professionals, these self-made oligarchs often have more in common with one another than with their own countrymen. But how is this happening, and who are the people making it happen? Chrystia Freeland, acclaimed business journalist and Global Editor-at-Large of Reuters, has unprecedented access to the richest and most successful people on the planet, from Davos to Dubai, and dissects their lives with intelligence, empathy and objectivity. Pacily written and powerfully researched, Plutocrats could not provide a more timely insight into the current state of Capitalism and its most wealthy players. 'A superb piece of reportage ... a tremendous illumination' (New Statesman on Freeland's previous title, Sale of the Century) |
| the meritocracy trap: The Years That Matter Most Paul Tough, 2019-09-12 What has gone wrong in our universities? And how do we make it right? When Amy applied to university, she thought she’d be judged purely on her merits. But she never thought that her family background would have as much impact on her future as her grades. When KiKi arrived at university, she knew she could be the only black woman in her class. But she didn’t know how out of place she would feel, nor how unwelcoming her peers would be. When Orry graduated from university, he was told he’d probably land a six-figure salary. But he wasn’t told he’d end up barely scraping a living wage, struggling to feed his children. Drawing on the stories of hundreds of American students, The Years That Matters Most is a revelatory account of a university system in crisis. Paul Tough, bestselling author of How Children Succeed, exposes a world where small-town colleges go bust, while the most prestigious raise billions every year; where overstretched admissions officers are forced to pick rich candidates over smart ones; where black and working-class students are left to sink or swim on uncaring campuses. Along the way, he uncovers cutting-edge research from the academics leading the way to a new kind of university – one where students succeed not because of their background, but because of the quality of their minds. The result is a call-to-arms for universities that work for everyone, and a manual for how we can make it happen. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Aristocracy of Talent Adrian Wooldridge, 2023-02-21 The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system. Wooldridge also shows how meritocracy has now become corrupted and argues that the recent stalling of social mobility is the result of failure to complete the meritocratic revolution. Rather than abandoning meritocracy, he says, we should call for its renewal. |
| the meritocracy trap: Against Meritocracy Jo Littler, 2017-08-16 Meritocracy today involves the idea that whatever your social position at birth, society ought to offer enough opportunity and mobility for ‘talent’ to combine with ‘effort’ in order to ‘rise to the top’. This idea is one of the most prevalent social and cultural tropes of our time, as palpable in the speeches of politicians as in popular culture. In this book Jo Littler argues that meritocracy is the key cultural means of legitimation for contemporary neoliberal culture – and that whilst it promises opportunity, it in fact creates new forms of social division. Against Meritocracy is split into two parts. Part I explores the genealogies of meritocracy within social theory, political discourse and working cultures. It traces the dramatic U-turn in meritocracy’s meaning, from socialist slur to a contemporary ideal of how a society should be organised. Part II uses a series of case studies to analyse the cultural pull of popular ‘parables of progress’, from reality TV to the super-rich and celebrity CEOs, from social media controversies to the rise of the ‘mumpreneur’. Paying special attention to the role of gender, ‘race’ and class, this book provides new conceptualisations of the meaning of meritocracy in contemporary culture and society. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Tyranny of Merit Michael J. Sandel, 2020-09-10 A TLS, GUARDIAN AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 The new bestseller from the acclaimed author of Justice and one of the world's most popular philosophers Astute, insightful, and empathetic...A crucial book for this moment Tara Westover, author of Educated These are dangerous times for democracy. We live in an age of winners and losers, where the odds are stacked in favour of the already fortunate. Stalled social mobility and entrenched inequality give the lie to the promise that you can make it if you try. And the consequence is a brew of anger and frustration that has fuelled populist protest, with the triumph of Brexit and election of Donald Trump. Michael J. Sandel argues that to overcome the polarized politics of our time, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalisation and rising inequality. Sandel highlights the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgement it imposes on those left behind. He offers an alternative way of thinking about success - more attentive to the role of luck in human affairs, more conducive to an ethic of humility, and more hospitable to a politics of the common good. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Myth of Meritocracy James Bloodworth, 2016-05-19 The best jobs in Britain today are overwhelmingly done by the children of the wealthy. Meanwhile, it is increasingly difficult for bright but poor kids to transcend their circumstances. This state of affairs should not only worry the less well-off. It hurts the middle classes too, who are increasingly locked out of the top professions by those from affluent backgrounds. Hitherto, Labour and Conservative politicians alike have sought to deal with the problem by promoting the idea of 'equality of opportunity'. In politics, social mobility is the only game in town, and old socialist arguments emphasising economic equality are about as fashionable today as mullets and shell suits. Yet genuine equality of opportunity is impossible alongside levels of inequality last seen during the 1930s. In a grossly unequal society, the privileges of the parents unfailingly become the privileges of the children. A vague commitment from our politicians to build a 'meritocracy' is not enough. Nor is it desirable: a perfectly stratified meritocracy, in which everyone knew their station based on 'merit', would be a deeply unpleasant place to live. Any genuine attempt to improve social mobility must start by reducing the gap between rich and poor. PROVOCATIONS is a groundbreaking new series of short polemics composed by some of the most intriguing voices in contemporary culture and edited by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Sharp, intelligent and controversial, Provocations provides insightful contributions to the most vital discussions in society today. |
| the meritocracy trap: GO BIG Ed Miliband, 2021-06-03 How do we rein in the power of Big Tech? How do we tackle the climate crisis? How can all of us play a part in making change happen? For the past four years, Ed Miliband has been discovering and interviewing brilliant people all around the world who are successfully tackling the biggest problems we face, transforming communities and pioneering global movements. Go Big draws on the most imaginative and ambitious of these ideas to provide a vision for the kind of society we need. A better world is possible; the solutions are out there. We can all make a difference. We just need to know where to look - and have the courage to think big. Go Big shows us how. 'Enthralling' PHILIP PULLMAN 'Such a hopeful book' ELIZABETH DAY 'Should be the rallying cry of progressives around the world' RUTGER BREGMAN |
| the meritocracy trap: When I Dare to Be Powerful Audre Lorde, 2020-09-24 'Women so empowered are dangerous' Written with a 'black woman's anger' and the precision of a poet, these searing pieces by the groundbreaking writer Audre Lorde are a celebration of female strength and solidarity, and a cry to speak out against those who seek to silence anyone they see as 'other'. One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists. |
| the meritocracy trap: Success and Luck Robert H. Frank, 2017-09-26 From New York Times bestselling author and economics columnist Robert Frank, a compelling book that explains why the rich underestimate the importance of luck in their success, why that hurts everyone, and what we can do about it How important is luck in economic success? No question more reliably divides conservatives from liberals. As conservatives correctly observe, people who amass great fortunes are almost always talented and hardworking. But liberals are also correct to note that countless others have those same qualities yet never earn much. In recent years, social scientists have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in important life outcomes than most people imagine. In Success and Luck, bestselling author and New York Times economics columnist Robert Frank explores the surprising implications of those findings to show why the rich underestimate the importance of luck in success—and why that hurts everyone, even the wealthy. Frank describes how, in a world increasingly dominated by winner-take-all markets, chance opportunities and trivial initial advantages often translate into much larger ones—and enormous income differences—over time; how false beliefs about luck persist, despite compelling evidence against them; and how myths about personal success and luck shape individual and political choices in harmful ways. But, Frank argues, we could decrease the inequality driven by sheer luck by adopting simple, unintrusive policies that would free up trillions of dollars each year—more than enough to fix our crumbling infrastructure, expand healthcare coverage, fight global warming, and reduce poverty, all without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. If this sounds implausible, you'll be surprised to discover that the solution requires only a few, noncontroversial steps. Compellingly readable, Success and Luck shows how a more accurate understanding of the role of chance in life could lead to better, richer, and fairer economies and societies. |
| the meritocracy trap: A Modern Legal Ethics Daniel Markovits, 2010-12-28 A Modern Legal Ethics proposes a wholesale renovation of legal ethics, one that contributes to ethical thought generally. Daniel Markovits reinterprets the positive law governing lawyers to identify fidelity as its organizing ideal. Unlike ordinary loyalty, fidelity requires lawyers to repress their personal judgments concerning the truth and justice of their clients' claims. Next, the book asks what it is like--not psychologically but ethically--to practice law subject to the self-effacement that fidelity demands. Fidelity requires lawyers to lie and to cheat on behalf of their clients. However, an ethically profound interest in integrity gives lawyers reason to resist this characterization of their conduct. Any legal ethics adequate to the complexity of lawyers' lived experience must address the moral dilemmas immanent in this tension. The dominant approaches to legal ethics cannot. Finally, A Modern Legal Ethics reintegrates legal ethics into political philosophy in a fashion commensurate to lawyers' central place in political practice. Lawyerly fidelity supports the authority of adjudication and thus the broader project of political legitimacy. Throughout, the book rejects the casuistry that dominates contemporary applied ethics in favor of an interpretive method that may be mimicked in other areas. Moreover, because lawyers practice at the hinge of modern morals and politics, the book's interpretive insights identify--in an unusually pure and intense form--the moral and political conditions of all modernity. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Gig Academy Adrianna Kezar, Tom DePaola, Daniel T. Scott, 2019-10-29 Why the Gig Academy is the dominant organizational form within the higher education economy—and its troubling implications for faculty, students, and the future of college education. Over the past two decades, higher education employment has undergone a radical transformation with faculty becoming contingent, staff being outsourced, and postdocs and graduate students becoming a larger share of the workforce. For example, the faculty has shifted from one composed mostly of tenure-track, full-time employees to one made up of contingent, part-time teachers. Non-tenure-track instructors now make up 70 percent of college faculty. Their pay for teaching eight courses averages $22,400 a year—less than the annual salary of most fast-food workers. In The Gig Academy, Adrianna Kezar, Tom DePaola, and Daniel T. Scott assess the impact of this disturbing workforce development. Providing an overarching framework that takes the concept of the gig economy and applies it to the university workforce, this book scrutinizes labor restructuring across both academic and nonacademic spheres. By synthesizing these employment trends, the book reveals the magnitude of the problem for individual workers across all institutional types and job categories while illustrating the damaging effects of these changes on student outcomes, campus community, and institutional effectiveness. A pointed critique of contemporary neoliberalism, the book also includes an analysis of the growing divide between employees and administrators. The authors conclude by examining the strengthening state of unionization among university workers. Advocating a collectivist, action-oriented vision for reversing the tide of exploitation, Kezar, DePaola, and Scott urge readers to use the book as a tool to interrogate the state of working relations on their own campuses and fight for a system that is run democratically for the benefit of all. Ultimately, The Gig Academy is a call to arms, one that encourages non-tenure-track faculty, staff, postdocs, graduate students, and administrative and tenure-track allies to unite in a common struggle against the neoliberal Gig Academy. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Tyranny of the Meritocracy Lani Guinier, 2016-01-12 A fresh and bold argument for revamping our standards of “merit” and a clear blueprint for creating collaborative education models that strengthen our democracy rather than privileging individual elites Standing on the foundations of America’s promise of equal opportunity, our universities purport to serve as engines of social mobility and practitioners of democracy. But as acclaimed scholar and pioneering civil rights advocate Lani Guinier argues, the merit systems that dictate the admissions practices of these institutions are functioning to select and privilege elite individuals rather than create learning communities geared to advance democratic societies. Having studied and taught at schools such as Harvard University, Yale Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Guinier has spent years examining the experiences of ethnic minorities and of women at the nation’s top institutions of higher education, and here she lays bare the practices that impede the stated missions of these schools. Goaded on by a contemporary culture that establishes value through ranking and sorting, universities assess applicants using the vocabulary of private, highly individualized merit. As a result of private merit standards and ever-increasing tuitions, our colleges and universities increasingly are failing in their mission to provide educational opportunity and to prepare students for productive and engaged citizenship. To reclaim higher education as a cornerstone of democracy, Guinier argues that institutions of higher learning must focus on admitting and educating a class of students who will be critical thinkers, active citizens, and publicly spirited leaders. Guinier presents a plan for considering “democratic merit,” a system that measures the success of higher education not by the personal qualities of the students who enter but by the work and service performed by the graduates who leave. Guinier goes on to offer vivid examples of communities that have developed effective learning strategies based not on an individual’s “merit” but on the collaborative strength of a group, learning and working together, supporting members, and evolving into powerful collectives. Examples are taken from across the country and include a wide range of approaches, each innovative and effective. Guinier argues for reformation, not only of the very premises of admissions practices but of the shape of higher education itself. |
| the meritocracy trap: Relational Inequalities Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Dustin Robert Avent-Holt, 2019 Organizations are the dominant social invention for generating resources and distributing them. Relational Inequalities develops a general sociological and organizational analysis of inequality, exploring the processes that generate inequalities in access to respect, resources, and rewards. Framing their analysis through a relational account of social and economic life, Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Dustin Avent-Holt explain how resources are generated and distributed both within and between organizations. They show that inequalities are produced through generic processes that occur in all social relationships: categorization and their resulting status hierarchies, organizational resource pooling, exploitation, social closure, and claims-making. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, Tomaskovic-Devey and Avent-Holt focus on the workplace as the primary organization for generating inequality and provide a series of global goals to advance both a comparative organizational research model and to challenge troubling inequalities. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Education Trap Cristina Viviana Groeger, 2021-03-09 Why—contrary to much expert and popular opinion—more education may not be the answer to skyrocketing inequality. For generations, Americans have looked to education as the solution to economic disadvantage. Yet, although more people are earning degrees, the gap between rich and poor is widening. Cristina Groeger delves into the history of this seeming contradiction, explaining how education came to be seen as a panacea even as it paved the way for deepening inequality. The Education Trap returns to the first decades of the twentieth century, when Americans were grappling with the unprecedented inequities of the Gilded Age. Groeger’s test case is the city of Boston, which spent heavily on public schools. She examines how workplaces came to depend on an army of white-collar staff, largely women and second-generation immigrants, trained in secondary schools. But Groeger finds that the shift to more educated labor had negative consequences—both intended and unintended—for many workers. Employers supported training in schools in order to undermine the influence of craft unions, and so shift workplace power toward management. And advanced educational credentials became a means of controlling access to high-paying professional and business jobs, concentrating power and wealth. Formal education thus became a central force in maintaining inequality. The idea that more education should be the primary means of reducing inequality may be appealing to politicians and voters, but Groeger warns that it may be a dangerous policy trap. If we want a more equitable society, we should not just prescribe more time in the classroom, but fight for justice in the workplace. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Great Divide Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2016 Why has inequality increased in the Western world - and what can we do about it? In The Great Divide, Joseph E. Stiglitz expands on the diagnosis he offered in his best-selling book The Price of Inequality and suggests ways to counter this growing problem. With his characteristic blend of clarity and passion, Stiglitz argues that inequality is a choice - the cumulative result of unjust policies and misguided priorities. In these essays, articles and reflections, Stiglitz fully exposes the inequality - from its dimensions and its causes to its consequences for the world - that is afflicting America and other Western countries in thrall to neoliberalism. From Reagan-era policies to the Great Recession and its long aftermath, Stiglitz delves into the processes and irresponsible policies - deregulation, tax cuts for the rich, the corruption of the political process - that are leaving many people further and further behind and turning the dream of a socially mobile society into an ever more unachievable myth. With formidable yet accessible economic insight, he urges us to embrace real solutions: increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy; investing in education, science, and infrastructure; helping homeowners instead of banks; and, most importantly, doing more to restore the economy to full employment. Stiglitz's analysis reaches beyond America - the inequality leader of the developed world - to draw lessons from Scandinavia, Singapore, and Japan, and he argues against the tide of unnecessary, destructive austerity that is sweeping across Europe. Ultimately, Stiglitz believes our choice is not between growth and fairness; with the right policies, we can choose both. |
| the meritocracy trap: Blueprint, with a new afterword Robert Plomin, 2019-07-02 A top behavioral geneticist makes the case that DNA inherited from our parents at the moment of conception can predict our psychological strengths and weaknesses. In Blueprint, behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin describes how the DNA revolution has made DNA personal by giving us the power to predict our psychological strengths and weaknesses from birth. A century of genetic research shows that DNA differences inherited from our parents are the consistent lifelong sources of our psychological individuality—the blueprint that makes us who we are. Plomin reports that genetics explains more about the psychological differences among people than all other factors combined. Nature, not nurture, is what makes us who we are. Plomin explores the implications of these findings, drawing some provocative conclusions—among them that parenting styles don't really affect children's outcomes once genetics is taken into effect. This book offers readers a unique insider's view of the exciting synergies that came from combining genetics and psychology. The paperback edition has a new afterword by the author. |
| the meritocracy trap: The New Class War Michael Lind, 2020-02-20 An Evening Standard's Book of the Year 'A tour de force.' David Goodhart All over the West, party systems have shattered and governments have been thrown into turmoil. The embattled establishment claims that these populist insurgencies seek to overthrow liberal democracy. The truth is no less alarming but is more complex: Western democracies are being torn apart by a new class war. In this controversial and groundbreaking analysis, Michael Lind, one of America's leading thinkers, debunks the idea that the insurgencies are primarily the result of bigotry and reveals the real battle lines. He traces how the breakdown of class compromises has left large populations in Western democracies politically adrift. We live in a globalized world that benefits elites in high income 'hubs' while suppressing the economic and social interests of those in more traditional lower-wage 'heartlands'. A bold framework for understanding the world, The New Class War argues that only a fresh class settlement can avert a never-ending cycle of clashes between oligarchs and populists - and save democracy. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Code of Capital Katharina Pistor, 2020-11-03 Capital is the defining feature of modern economies, yet most people have no idea where it actually comes from. What is it, exactly, that transforms mere wealth into an asset that automatically creates more wealth? The Code of Capital explains how capital is created behind closed doors in the offices of private attorneys, and why this little-known fact is one of the biggest reasons for the widening wealth gap between the holders of capital and everybody else. In this revealing book, Katharina Pistor argues that the law selectively codes certain assets, endowing them with the capacity to protect and produce private wealth. With the right legal coding, any object, claim, or idea can be turned into capital - and lawyers are the keepers of the code. Pistor describes how they pick and choose among different legal systems and legal devices for the ones that best serve their clients' needs, and how techniques that were first perfected centuries ago to code landholdings as capital are being used today to code stocks, bonds, ideas, and even expectations--assets that exist only in law. A powerful new way of thinking about one of the most pernicious problems of our time, The Code of Capital explores the different ways that debt, complex financial products, and other assets are coded to give financial advantage to their holders. This provocative book paints a troubling portrait of the pervasive global nature of the code, the people who shape it, and the governments that enforce it.--Provided by publisher. |
| the meritocracy trap: Virtue Hoarders Catherine Liu, 2021-01-26 A denunciation of the credentialed elite class that serves capitalism while insisting on its own progressive heroism Professional Managerial Class (PMC) elite workers labor in a world of performative identity and virtue signaling, publicizing an ability to do ordinary things in fundamentally superior ways. Author Catherine Liu shows how the PMC stands in the way of social justice and economic redistribution by promoting meritocracy, philanthropy, and other self-serving operations to abet an individualist path to a better world. Virtue Hoarders is an unapologetically polemical call to reject making a virtue out of taste and consumption habits. Forerunners: Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Second Mountain David Brooks, 2019-04-16 NO.1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SOCIAL ANIMAL Are you on your first or second mountain? Is life about you - or others? About success - or something deeper? The world tells us that we should pursue our self-interest: career wins, high status, nice things. These are the goals of our first mountain. But at some point in our lives we might find that we're not interested in what other people tell us to want. We want the things that are truly worth wanting. This is the second mountain. What does it mean to look beyond yourself and find a moral cause? To forget about independence and discover dependence - to be utterly enmeshed in a web of warm relationships? What does it mean to value intimacy, devotion, responsibility and commitment above individual freedom? In The Second Mountain David Brooks explores the meaning and possibilities that scaling a second mountain offer us and the four commitments that most commonly move us there: family, vocation, philosophy and community. Inspiring, personal and full of joy, this book will help you discover why you were really put on this earth. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Little Book of Economics Greg Ip, 2013-01-14 An accessible, thoroughly engaging look at how the economy really works and its role in your everyday life Not surprisingly, regular people suddenly are paying a lot closer attention to the economy than ever before. But economics, with its weird technical jargon and knotty concepts and formulas can be a very difficult subject to get to grips with on your own. Enter Greg Ip and his Little Book of Economics. Like a patient, good-natured tutor, Greg, one of today's most respected economics journalists, walks you through everything you need to know about how the economy works. Short on technical jargon and long on clear, concise, plain-English explanations of important terms, concepts, events, historical figures and major players, this revised and updated edition of Greg's bestselling guide clues you in on what's really going on, what it means to you and what we should be demanding our policymakers do about the economy going forward. From inflation to the Federal Reserve, taxes to the budget deficit, you get indispensible insights into everything that really matters about economics and its impact on everyday life Special sections featuring additional resources of every subject discussed and where to find additional information to help you learn more about an issue and keep track of ongoing developments Offers priceless insights into the roots of America's economic crisis and its aftermath, especially the role played by excessive greed and risk-taking, and what can be done to avoid another economic cataclysm Digs into globalization, the roots of the Euro crisis, the sources of China's spectacular growth, and why the gap between the economy's winners and losers keeps widening |
| the meritocracy trap: Dream Hoarders Richard Reeves, 2018-05-08 Dream Hoarders sparked a national conversation on the dangerous separation between the upper middle class and everyone else. Now in paperback and newly updated for the age of Trump, Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard Reeves is continuing to challenge the class system in America. In America, everyone knows that the top 1 percent are the villains. The rest of us, the 99 percent—we are the good guys. Not so, argues Reeves. The real class divide is not between the upper class and the upper middle class: it is between the upper middle class and everyone else. The separation of the upper middle class from everyone else is both economic and social, and the practice of “opportunity hoarding”—gaining exclusive access to scarce resources—is especially prevalent among parents who want to perpetuate privilege to the benefit of their children. While many families believe this is just good parenting, it is actually hurting others by reducing their chances of securing these opportunities. There is a glass floor created for each affluent child helped by his or her wealthy, stable family. That glass floor is a glass ceiling for another child. Throughout Dream Hoarders, Reeves explores the creation and perpetuation of opportunity hoarding, and what should be done to stop it, including controversial solutions such as ending legacy admissions to school. He offers specific steps toward reducing inequality and asks the upper middle class to pay for it. Convinced of their merit, members of the upper middle class believes they are entitled to those tax breaks and hoarded opportunities. After all, they aren't the 1 percent. The national obsession with the super rich allows the upper middle class to convince themselves that they are just like the rest of America. In Dream Hoarders, Reeves argues that in many ways, they are worse, and that changes in policy and social conscience are the only way to fix the broken system. |
| the meritocracy trap: Hard Choices Donald Low, 2014-04-22 Singapore is changing. The consensus that the PAP government has constructed and maintained over five decades is fraying. The assumptions that underpin Singaporean exceptionalism are no longer accepted as easily and readily as before. Among these are the ideas that the country is uniquely vulnerable, that this vulnerability limits its policy and political options, that good governance demands a degree of political consensus that ordinary democratic arrangements cannot produce, and that the country's success requires a competitive meritocracy accompanied by relatively little income or wealth redistribution.But the policy and political conundrums that Singapore faces today are complex and defy easy answers. Confronted with a political landscape that is likely to become more contested, how should the government respond? What reforms should it pursue? This collection of essays suggests that a far-reaching and radical rethinking of the country's policies and institutions is necessary, even if it weakens the very consensus that enabled Singapore to succeed in its first fifty years. |
| the meritocracy trap: Diploma Democracy Mark Bovens, Anchrit Wille, 2017-06-23 Lay politics lies at the heart of democracy. Political offices are the only offices for which no formal qualifications are required. Contemporary political practices are diametrically opposed to this constitutional ideal. Most democracies in Western Europe are diploma democracies - ruled by those with the highest formal qualifications. Citizens with low or medium educational qualifications currently make up about 70 percent of the electorates, yet they have become virtually absent from almost all political arenas. University graduates have come to dominate all political institutions and venues, from political parties, parliaments and cabinets, to organised interests, deliberative settings, and Internet consultations. This rise of a political meritocracy is part of larger trend. In the information society, educational background, like class or religion, is an important source of social and political divides. Those who are well educated tend to be cosmopolitans, whereas the lesser educated citizens are more likely to be nationalists. This book documents the context, contours, and consequences of this rise of a political meritocracy. It explores the domination of higher educated citizens in political participation, civil society, and political office in Western Europe. It discusses the consequences of this rise of a political meritocracy, such as descriptive deficits, policy incongruences, biased standards, and cynicism and distrust. Also, it looks at ways to remedy, or at least mitigate, some of the negative effects of diploma democracy. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Class Ceiling Friedman, Sam, Laurison, Daniel, 2020-01-06 Politicians continually tell us that anyone can get ahead. But is that really true? This important, best-selling book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Friedman and Laurison show that a powerful 'class pay gap’ exists in Britain’s elite occupations. Even when those from working-class backgrounds make it into prestigious jobs, they earn, on average, 16% less than colleagues from privileged backgrounds. But why is this the case? Drawing on 175 interviews across four case studies – television, accountancy, architecture, and acting – they explore the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile. This is a rich, ambitious book that demands we take seriously not just the glass but also the class ceiling. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Cult of Smart Fredrik deBoer, 2020-08-04 Named one of Vulture’s Top 10 Best Books of 2020! Leftist firebrand Fredrik deBoer exposes the lie at the heart of our educational system and demands top-to-bottom reform. Everyone agrees that education is the key to creating a more just and equal world, and that our schools are broken and failing. Proposed reforms variously target incompetent teachers, corrupt union practices, or outdated curricula, but no one acknowledges a scientifically-proven fact that we all understand intuitively: Academic potential varies between individuals, and cannot be dramatically improved. In The Cult of Smart, educator and outspoken leftist Fredrik deBoer exposes this omission as the central flaw of our entire society, which has created and perpetuated an unjust class structure based on intellectual ability. Since cognitive talent varies from person to person, our education system can never create equal opportunity for all. Instead, it teaches our children that hierarchy and competition are natural, and that human value should be based on intelligence. These ideas are counter to everything that the left believes, but until they acknowledge the existence of individual cognitive differences, progressives remain complicit in keeping the status quo in place. This passionate, voice-driven manifesto demands that we embrace a new goal for education: equality of outcomes. We must create a world that has a place for everyone, not just the academically talented. But we’ll never achieve this dream until the Cult of Smart is destroyed. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Fires of Vengeance Evan Winter, 2020-11-10 'CAPTIVATING EPIC FANTASY FROM A MAJOR NEW TALENT' Anthony Ryan on The Rage of Dragons Desperate to delay an impending attack by the indigenous people of Xidda, Tau and his queen craft a dangerous plan. If Tau succeeds, the queen will have the time she needs to assemble her forces and launch an all-out assault on her own capital city, where her sister is being propped up as the 'true' Queen of the Omehi. If the city can be taken, if Tsiora can reclaim her throne and reunite her people, then the Omehi might have a chance to survive the coming onslaught. THE FIRES OF VENGEANCE CONTINUES THE UNMISSABLE EPIC FANTASY SERIES THAT BEGAN WITH EVAN WINTER'S ACCLAIMED DEBUT THE RAGE OF DRAGONS. Praise for The Rage of Dragons: 'Intense, inventive and action-packed from beginning to end - a relentlessly gripping, brilliant read' James Islington, author of The Shadow of What Was Lost 'Stunning debut fantasy' Publishers Weekly 'Intense, vivid and brilliantly realised - a necessary read' Anna Smith Spark, author of The Court of Broken Knives 'Impossible to put down' Rick Riordan 'Fans of Anthony Ryan's Blood Song will love this' Django Wexler, author of The Thousand Names 'A Xhosa-inspired world complete with magic, dragons, demons and curses, The Rage of Dragons takes classic fantasy and imbues it with a fresh and exciting twist' Anna Stephens, author of Godblind |
| the meritocracy trap: Greed Is Dead Paul Collier, John Kay, 2020-07-30 Two of the UK's leading economists call for an end to extreme individualism as the engine of prosperity 'provocative but thought-provoking and nuanced' Telegraph Throughout history, successful societies have created institutions which channel both competition and co-operation to achieve complex goals of general benefit. These institutions make the difference between societies that thrive and those paralyzed by discord, the difference between prosperous and poor economies. Such societies are pluralist but their pluralism is disciplined. Successful societies are also rare and fragile. We could not have built modernity without the exceptional competitive and co-operative instincts of humans, but in recent decades the balance between these instincts has become dangerously skewed: mutuality has been undermined by an extreme individualism which has weakened co-operation and polarized our politics. Collier and Kay show how a reaffirmation of the values of mutuality could refresh and restore politics, business and the environments in which people live. Politics could reverse the moves to extremism and tribalism; businesses could replace the greed that has degraded corporate culture; the communities and decaying places that are home to many could overcome despondency and again be prosperous and purposeful. As the world emerges from an unprecedented crisis we have the chance to examine society afresh and build a politics beyond individualism. |
| the meritocracy trap: Excellent Sheep William Deresiewicz, 2014-08-19 A groundbreaking manifesto about what our nation’s top schools should be—but aren’t—providing: “The ex-Yale professor effectively skewers elite colleges, their brainy but soulless students (those ‘sheep’), pushy parents, and admissions mayhem” (People). As a professor at Yale, William Deresiewicz saw something that troubled him deeply. His students, some of the nation’s brightest minds, were adrift when it came to the big questions: how to think critically and creatively and how to find a sense of purpose. Now he argues that elite colleges are turning out conformists without a compass. Excellent Sheep takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with parents and counselors who demand perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw firsthand as a member of Yale’s admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to “practical” subjects like economics, students are losing the ability to think independently. It is essential, says Deresiewicz, that college be a time for self-discovery when students can establish their own values and measures of success in order to forge their own paths. He features quotes from real students and graduates he has corresponded with over the years, candidly exposing where the system is broken and offering clear solutions on how to fix it. “Excellent Sheep is likely to make…a lasting mark….He takes aim at just about the entirety of upper-middle-class life in America….Mr. Deresiewicz’s book is packed full of what he wants more of in American life: passionate weirdness” (The New York Times). |
| the meritocracy trap: The Caste of Merit Ajantha Subramanian, 2019-12-03 How the language of “merit” makes caste privilege invisible in contemporary India. Just as Americans least disadvantaged by racism are most likely to endorse their country as post‐racial, Indians who have benefited from their upper-caste affiliation rush to declare their country post‐caste. In The Caste of Merit, Ajantha Subramanian challenges this comfortable assumption by illuminating the controversial relationships among technical education, caste formation, and economic stratification in modern India. Through in-depth study of the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)—widely seen as symbols of national promise—she reveals the continued workings of upper-caste privilege within the most modern institutions. Caste has not disappeared in India but instead acquired a disturbing invisibility—at least when it comes to the privileged. Only the lower castes invoke their affiliation in the political arena, to claim resources from the state. The upper castes discard such claims as backward, embarrassing, and unfair to those who have earned their position through hard work and talent. Focusing on a long history of debates surrounding access to engineering education, Subramanian argues that such defenses of merit are themselves expressions of caste privilege. The case of the IITs shows how this ideal of meritocracy serves the reproduction of inequality, ensuring that social stratification remains endemic to contemporary democracies. |
| the meritocracy trap: Twilight of the Elites Christopher Hayes, 2012 Analyzes scandals in high-profile institutions, from Wall Street and the Catholic Church to corporate America and Major League Baseball, while evaluating how an elite American meritocracy rose throughout the past half-century before succumbing to unprecedented levels of corruption and failure. 75,000 first printing. |
| the meritocracy trap: Multi-Polar Capitalism Robert Guttmann, 2021-12-04 History teaches us important lessons, provided we can discern its patterns. Multi-Polar Capitalism applies this insight to the crucial, yet often underappreciated issue of international monetary relations. When international monetary systems get first put into place successfully, such as the “classic” gold standard in 1879, Bretton Woods in 1945, or the dollar standard in 1982, they structure relations between the system’s centre and the rest of the world so that others can catch up to the leader. But this growth-promoting constellation, a vector for accelerating globalization, runs its course eventually amidst mounting overproduction conditions in key sectors and spreading financial instability. Such periods of global crisis, from the Great Depression of the 1930s to stagflation in the 1970s and creeping deflation during much of the 2010s, force restructuring and policy reforms until conditions are ripe for a renewed phase of sustained expansion. We are facing such a turning point now. As we are moving from a US-dominated world economy towards a multi-polar configuration, we will also see the longstanding dollar standard give way to a multi-currency system. Three currency blocs rooted in the dollar, euro, and yuan will be dominated respectively by the United States, the European Union, and China, each a power centre representing a distinct variant of capitalism. Their complex mix of competition and cooperation necessitates new “rules of the game” promoting the shared pursuit of global public goods, in particular the impending zero-carbon transition, lest we allow fragmentation and conflict shape this next chapter of our history. Multi-Polar Capitalism adds to a century of research and debate on long waves, those roughly half-century cycles first identified by the great Soviet economist Nikolai Kondratiev in the early 1920s, by highlighting the role of the international monetary system in this distinct boom-and-bust pattern. |
| the meritocracy trap: The Price of Admission (Updated Edition) Daniel Golden, 2009-01-21 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A fire-breathing, righteous attack on the culture of superprivilege.”—Michael Wolff, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Fire and Fury, in the New York Times Book Review NOW WITH NEW REPORTING ON OPERATION VARSITY BLUES In this explosive and prescient book, based on three years of investigative reporting, Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Golden shatters the myth of an American meritocracy. Naming names, along with grades and test scores, Golden lays bare a corrupt system in which middle-class and working-class whites and Asian Americans are routinely passed over in favor of wealthy white students with lesser credentials—children of alumni, big donors, and celebrities. He reveals how a family donation got Jared Kushner into Harvard, and how colleges comply with Title IX by giving scholarships to rich women in “patrician sports” like horseback riding and crew. With a riveting new chapter on Operation Varsity Blues, based on original reporting, The Price of Admission is a must-read—not only for parents and students with a personal stake in college admissions but also for those disturbed by the growing divide between ordinary and privileged Americans. Praise for The Price of Admission “A disturbing exposé of the influence that wealth and power still exert on admission to the nation’s most prestigious universities.”—The Washington Post “Deserves to become a classic.”—The Economist |
| the meritocracy trap: Overcoming the Achievement Gap Trap Anthony Muhammad, 2015 Explores the state of the academic achievement gap that exists in U.S. public schools, particularly among poor and minority students, and argues that the mindset that achievement gaps are inevitable are no longer tolerable. Explores ways to close the achievement gap via real-world case studies where principals and educators have adopted new mindsets for education. |
| the meritocracy trap: This is what Inequality Looks Like Youyenn Teo, Kian Woon Kwok, 2019 |
| the meritocracy trap: Happy Ever After Paul Dolan, 2019-01-17 'A passionate, provocative book. It isn't just a self-help book. It is a manifesto for a better society' Sunday Times 'One of the most rigorous articulations of the new mood of acceptance...a persuasive demolition of many of our cultural stories about how we ought to live' Oliver Burkeman, Guardian Paul Dolan, the bestselling author of Happiness by Design, shows us how to escape the myth of perfection and find our own route to happiness. Be ambitious; find everlasting love; look after your health ... There are countless stories about how we ought to live our lives. These narratives can make our lives easier, and they might sometimes make us happier too. But they can also trap us and those around us. In Happy Ever After, bestselling happiness expert Professor Paul Dolan draws on a variety of studies ranging over wellbeing, inequality and discrimination to bust the common myths about our sources of happiness. He shows that there can be many unexpected paths to lasting fulfilment. Some of these might involve not going into higher education, choosing not to marry, rewarding acts rooted in self-interest and caring a little less about living forever. By freeing ourselves from the myth of the perfect life, we might each find a life worth living. |
The Meritocracy Trap by Daniel Markovits
Sep 11, 2019 · Markovits’s new book, The Meritocracy Trap (Penguin Press), places meritocracy at the center of rising economic inequality and social and political dysfunction. The book takes …
Press - Page 2 of 4 - Daniel Markovits - themeritocracytrap.com
Oct 4, 2019 The Meritocracy Trap by Daniel Markovits Review — How the Rich Beat the System Read Full Article
Press - Daniel Markovits
Oct 21, 2019 Is Meritocracy a Sham? Does Diversification Sacrifice Excellence? Two Yale Profs Offer Views in New Books Read Full Article
Supply, Demand, and the Skill Premium - Daniel Markovits
Sep 4, 2019 · The Meritocracy Trap emphasizes one of these sources, arguing, in Chapter Eight, that the enormous labor incomes that superordinate workers enjoy have their roots in …
Meritocracy and the Politics of Progressive Taxes
Sep 11, 2019 · The Meritocracy Trap claims that meritocratic inequality resists many of the most politically potent arguments for progressive taxes. Aristocratic rentiers exploited workers while …
Essays - Daniel Markovits
Sep 11, 2019 Meritocracy and the Politics of Progressive Taxes The Meritocracy Trap claims that meritocratic inequality resists many of the most politically potent arguments for progressive …
How to Measure Poverty - Daniel Markovits
Sep 6, 2019 · In the second half of Chapter Four, devoted to “Poverty and Wealth,” The Meritocracy Trap argues that “poverty is by any measure both narrower and shallower than in …
Are the One Percent Capitalists or Superordinate Workers?
Sep 2, 2019 · The Meritocracy Trap takes a different view concerning the present—and argues that both top incomes and the increase in the 1 percent’s share of national income continue to …
More Evidence of Snowball Inequality - Daniel Markovits
Sep 8, 2019 · The complex interactions described in The Meritocracy Trap, especially among the overlapping causes behind snowball inequality, only compound the difficulty. They make it …
An Explanatory Note - Daniel Markovits
Sep 11, 2019 Meritocracy and the Politics of Progressive Taxes Learn More. Sep 8, 2019 More Evidence of Snowball Inequality Learn More. Sep 6, 2019 How to Measure Poverty Learn …
SSRN.GetOut of Middle-Income Trap - UC Davis
Aug 13, 2009 · meritocracy and institutionalises racism, thereby preventing full mobilization of human resources ... To escape the middle-income trap, the government must implement root-and-branch reform in many areas (most, notably, the civil service, educational and research institutions, the fiscal
In Defence of Meritocracy - Centre for Independent Studies
ary books alert us to the “merit trap”, the “tyranny of merit”, and the “meritocracy myth.”1 The authors of these books — mainly academics — are particu-larly critical of merit-based entry into universities. Their focus on universities makes sense, given higher education’s crucial role in determining social stand-ing.
The deep-rooted myth of meritocracy is widening the …
Oct 10, 2021 · The first trap to surface contains nothing, as the trap’ s “efficiently inefficient” design lets. undersized lobsters and other sea creatures enter and exit freely to protect the species. and other marine life. The second trap comes up with several lobsters; however, after measuring the animals’
Selected Cultural Competency / Responsiveness Reading List
• The Meritocracy Trap, Daniel Markovitits (2019) • Stop Making Sense, Michael J. Fanule (2019) • Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance (2017) • Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson (2010) • Humility is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Age, Edward D. Hess and Katherine Ludwig (2017)
Meritocracy and The Common Good - Jubilee Centre for …
trap of arguing for a more meritocratic meritocracy; of claiming that the only problem with the concept is our failure to live up to its promises. Sandel and Goodhart pose fundamental questions about meritocracy’s claims to justice and fairness even in an ideal world where all relative privilege was eliminated.
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational M …
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational M The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort Even
Review of Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love …
The meritocracy trap: How America’s foundational myth feed inequality, dismantles the middle class, and devours the elite. London, UK: Penguin Press. 4. Review of Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country
Timothy J. Barnett Merit: Contrived or Morally Measured?
title, The Meritocracy Trap. This title reflects the general emphasis of academic publications during the last twenty years as sociologists, anthropologists, psy-chologists, and political scientists began urging a reevaluation of merit’s social justice implications. With economic theoreticians preoccupied with the mathemati -
AVOIDING THE MERIT TRAP - Champions Of Change Coalition
CONFRONTING THE MERIT TRAP HELPS BUSINESSES TO: • Access the full talent pool; • Identify the best candidate for a particular role; and • Expand business opportunities by taking advantage of diverse thinking, perspectives and experiences. CONFRONTING THE MERIT TRAP Merit is a trap – it is the ultimate card to play in preventing change.
The tyranny of meritocracy pdf - uploads.strikinglycdn.com
Last year, Yale Law School professor Daniel Markovits contended in The Meritocracy Trap that meritocracy creates an endless, soul-deadening treadmill of competition for those on top that nevertheless allows their class to capture most of the rewards of economic growth.The latest entry in this debate comes from Bass professor of government Michael
saturdayreview - stevenpinker.com
The Meritocracy Trap and Michael Sandel in The Tyranny of Merit. In The Aristocracy of Talent, the Economist writer Adrian Wooldridge defends the meritocratic ideal. The book offers a sweeping account of the history of meritocracy, from the elaborate exams required to join the Chinese civil service to the problems with our
A Modern Legal Ethics Daniel Markovits (Download Only)
ethics in favour of an interpretive method that may be mimicked in other areas The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational My Full …
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational My The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort Even
The Unfulfillable Promise of Meritocracy: Three Lessons and …
ical roots of meritocracy (Allen, 2011; Panayotakis, 2014; Saunders, 2006). This paper is an attempt to bridge these literatures by bringing empirical findings to bear on a careful scrutiny of the notion of meritocracy. To that end, I offer a brief history of the term meritocracy and its reception in academia and beyond; a re-
Labour migration: a developmental path or a low-level trap?
path or a low-level trap? David Ellerman This article focuses on the debate about the developmental impact of migration on the sending countries. Throughout the post-Second World War period, temporary labour migration has ... This is a variation on the old theme about how a meritocracy works to perpetuate a stratified society. The classic ...
In the eye of the beholder
biases, resulting in a paradox of meritocracy.1 Senior men in Australian business were twice as likely to rank other men over women as effective problem solvers, despite believing that women were as capable as men in delivering outcomes.2 Merit is a trap it is the ultimate A study of 200 performance reviews in
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational My [PDF]
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational My The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort Even
Meritocracy and Inequality in South Africa: Understanding …
the recent COVID-19 pandemic, energy crisis, and a low growth trap have just further entrenched the country into a more unequal society. Furthermore, there have been low levels of social mobility, especially for those on the lower end of society (Schotte, Zizzamia, and ... MERITOCRACY, INEQUALITY, AND BELIEFS ON REDISTRIBUTION IN SA 3.
arXiv:2301.00237v1 [econ.TH] 31 Dec 2022
meritocracy, however, may increaseeconomic inequalityand social and political dysfunc-tion, the so-called meritocracy trap (Markovits, 2019). To decrease the inequities that exist Keywords: Diversity, meritocracy, college admission, matroids, ordinal concavity.
AVOIDING THE MERIT TRAP - Champions Of Change Coalition
CONFRONTING THE MERIT TRAP HELPS BUSINESSES TO: • Access the full talent pool; • Identify the best candidate for a particular role; and • Expand business opportunities by taking advantage of diverse thinking, perspectives and experiences. CONFRONTING THE MERIT TRAP Merit is a trap – it is the ultimate card to play in preventing change.
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational M (PDF)
It is your definitely own become old to measure reviewing habit. along with guides you could enjoy now is The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational M below. Table of Contents The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational M 1. Understanding the eBook The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational M
Is meritocracy just? New evidence from Boolean analysis and …
Meritocracy is seen as a fair way to distribute resources, ensuring the most pro-ductive individuals benet the most. However, the fairness of meritocracy is called into question when considering the naturalness bias, which favours innate talent over hard work [13]. The naturalness bias is a tendency to value and 12,
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational My (2024)
The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational M
The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even
New racism, meritocracy and individualism: constraining …
their male counterparts. Thus a discourse of meritocracy featured largely in explanations for existing gender inequalities. Although most respondents explicitly endorsed the principle of equal oppor-tunity for men and women, at the same time they provided detailed accounts about the practical constraints that prevented this from becoming a reality:
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational M Copy
The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even
Sample Syllabi Subject to Change The Global Political …
Daniel Markovits, “The Working Rich,” in The Meritocracy Trap (New York: Penguin Press, 2019), 77-110 (Canvas). o Note: read until p. 98. Income Inequality II: Labor Reconstituted Shareholder Capitalism Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits,” The
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational My (2024)
The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational M Copy
The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational M Walter …
The Meritocracy Trap reveals the inner workings of the meritocratic machine, it also illuminates the first steps outward, towards a new world that might once again afford dignity and prosperity to the American people. The Tyranny of Merit Michael J. Sandel,2020-09-15 A Times Literary Supplement’s Book of the Year 2020 A New
Equity Traps: A Useful Construct for Preparing Principals to …
Equity Trap 3: Avoidance and Employment of the Gaze • This idea of the gaze is taken directly from Foucault’s (1977) work. • The teachers from the study did not feel as though they were under the surveillance of parents and administrators in their low-income
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The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even
MARK PURCELL Department of Urban Design and …
Mar 21, 2017 · meritocracy. Antipode 39(1): 121-143. * 2006 Purcell, M. and B. Born (equal authors) Avoiding the local trap: Scale and Food Systems in Planning Research. Journal of Planning Education and Research 26(2): 195-207. 3 Updated 3/21/17 * 2006 Purcell, M. Urban Democracy and the Local Trap.
Meritocracy, Political Legitimacy, and t he National College …
Meritocracy, Political Legitimacy, and t he National College Entrance Exam in China . Introduction: The National College Entrance Exam as a Fulcrum of Political ... trap that bedevils so many developing countries. 8. As growth slows, a whole generation of youth is confronting the idea that China’s future may not be as bright as they once
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The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational My (2024)
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Time BRIEF - ENS
—Daniel Markovits, author of The Meritocracy Trap 0.5625 BRIEF HISTORY of EQUALITY A THOMAS PIKETTY. A BRIEF HISTORY OF EQUALITY. INTRODUCTION This book offers a comparative history of inequalities among social classes in human socie ties. Or rather, it offers a history of equality,
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational My (2024)
The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even
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2 2 Myth And Knowing An Introduction To World Mythology Myth And Knowing An Introduction To World Mythology 2023-02-01 bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational My (book)
The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even
Meritocracy as an Ideology for Neoliberalism: A Korean Case
American society, where he discusses the concept of the meritocracy trap and provides insightful characterizations of meritocracy as a neoliberal ideology. Building upon Markovitz’s critical analysis of the meritocratic-neoliberal complex, I will delve into the moral and political consequences brought about by meritocracy within the context
Superskills Counting Numbers (2024)
stamped and embossed covers Easy to understand directions Review pages The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort Even as the
Capital and Ideology - Harvard University Press
erty, entrepreneurship, and meritocracy: modern inequality is said to be just because it is the result of a freely chosen process in which everyone enjoys equal access to the market and to property and automatically benefits from the wealth accumulated by the wealthiest individuals, who are also the most enterprising, deserving, and useful.
AVOIDING THE MERIT TRAP - Champions Of Change Coalition
CONFRONTING THE MERIT TRAP HELPS BUSINESSES TO: • Access the full talent pool; • Identify the best candidate for a particular role; and • Expand business opportunities by taking advantage of diverse thinking, perspectives and experiences. CONFRONTING THE MERIT TRAP Merit is a trap – it is the ultimate card to play in preventing change.
The Meritocracy Trap How America S Foundational My (2024)
The Meritocracy Trap Daniel Markovits,2020-09-08 A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even
V Omnibus Analyses - JSTOR
meritocracy as a false idol and a trap, one that according to the book s subtitle feeds inequality, dismantles the middle class, and de-vours the elite. Similarly, in The Tyranny of Merit , Michael Sandel ( , &) warns of the moral de ciencies of the current …
