History Extra | 21 June 2021 | 0h 40m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Adrian Wooldridge about his book The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World. Explores meritocracy’s role in forging the modern world, and weighs up the challenges and advantages of a system in which people are advanced solely on the basis of their talents.
The principal merit on which the modern meritocracy is selected its ability to perform well on tests. The sort of intelligence that is a pre-requisite for that ability is indeed a virtue, but is only one of the virtues that is desirable for an élite.
Helen Andrews has a good critique of the meritocracy and a proposal at https://herandrews.com/2016/07/01/the-new-ruling-class/
Thanks. I agree that it is a good read, discussing the application of a meritocratic selection process to the UK civil service, and advocating that elites recognise that they are an elite and holds themselves to a high standard.