Meritocracy
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Meritocracy is a hypothetical society in which people are given social, economic and political functions according to their merit, rather than race, gender or class. Originally described as a dystopia by British Labour Party politician Michael Dunlop Young in his 1958 satirical essay The Rise of the Meritocracy, it later adopted more positive connotations.
Problems with meritocracy
Defining merit
The most basic critique of meritocracy consists of the simple question: Merit to do what?
Measuring merit
Another problem is the means by which a meritocracy measures merit.
Acquiring merit
The means to acquire merit within a meritocracy may be unevenly distributed.