Meritokracija: zgodba o regulativni ideji našega časa

In the initial chapters of the present book, we analyzed the social conditions that significantly contributed to the emergence and rise of meritocracy as the dominant rationality. We have argued that over the last three centuries it has reshaped, shifted the values of, and, in general, significantly determined the way the world and the lives of individuals in Western societies have been perceived. At the same time, we have argued that its position in society has been sustained by politicians, teachers, parents, and other members of the public. We have attributed the success of the basic idea of meritocracy—rewarding the individual according to his or her abilities and efforts—in large part to the way it fits within the twin pillars of democracy and the market economy. Democracy relies on, and to a large extent enables, freedom and equal formal opportunities for all; the rise of wage labor and market mechanisms, on the other hand, requires the harnessing of all possible national and global potentials of “human capital.” We have thematized Young’s innovative criterion for evaluating meritocracy using the formula “effort + IQ brings merit” (1958) and argued that the two key elements in the formula did not come about by chance.