3 ms·

The word comes from the book “The Rise of the Meritocracy” by Michael Dunlop Young. Worth a read.

• kwhitefoot 2y ago
  Young was not a fan of meritocracy though: "meritocracy (n.) coined 1958 by British sociologist Michael Young (1915-2002) and used in title of his book, "The Rise of the Meritocracy"; from merit (n.) + -cracy. Related: Meritocratic. [Young's book] imagined an elite that got its position not from ancestry, but from test scores and effort. For him, meritocracy was a negative term; his spoof was a warning about the negative consequences of assigning social status based on formal educational qualifications, and showed how excluding from leadership anyone who couldn't jump through the educational hoops would create a new form of discrimination. And that's exactly what has happened. [Lani Guinier, interview, New York Times, Feb. 7, 2015] " https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=meritocracy https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=meritocracy