City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

The aristocracy of talent, how meritocracy made the modern world, Adrian Wooldridge

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

The aristocracy of talent

bibliography

Adrian Wooldridge

how meritocracy made the modern world

Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their status at birth. For much of history this was a revolutionary thought, but 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? 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 meritocractic 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

Introduction: a revolutionary idea -- Priority, degree and place -- Meritocracy before modernity -- The rise of the meritocracy -- The march of the meritocrats -- The crisis of the meritocracy