Let's take meritocracy.

Meritocracy was Young s 1984.

The Myth of Chinese Meritocracy

The Rise and Fall of Meritocracy

Meritocracy the word sounds nothing but good.

And that nice thing is called meritocracy.

Meritocracy is at the core of American conservative beliefs.

So meritocracy seems preferable, at least at first sight.

For many, France has long been the epitome of meritocracy.

Life, like journalism, is not a perfect meritocracy, but effort counts.

Under China s current institutional arrangements, meritocracy is a prerequisite for good governance.

But meritocracy has been eroded by a political culture of sycophancy and cynicism.

I don t like quotas either they run counter to my belief in meritocracy.

Adaptability, Meritocracy, and Legitimacy are the three defining characteristics of China's one party system.

And it is, again, linked to something nice, and that nice thing is called meritocracy.

When meritocracy is downgraded, as it has been during the Bush years, bad things happen.

In a similar vein, the Confucian tradition has long emphasized the value of political meritocracy.

Indeed, nowadays meritocracy seems to be simply another version of the inequality that characterises all societies.

So meritocracy seems preferable, at least at first sight. But, on closer inspection, things are not so simple.

He changed the administration of the state through an emphasis on meritocracy and devolving power from the nobility.

In some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Oman, perceptions of corruption are linked to the absence of meritocracy.

There is a need, however, for a healthy skepticism towards the claims of a meritocracy based on academic achievement alone.

This led to the creation of a meritocracy, although success was available only to males who could afford test preparation.

The last principle I want to share with you about how an open enterprise works is that it has a true meritocracy of ideas.

It emphasizes equality of opportunity in education as well as meritocracy in government, with leadership positions being distributed to the community s most virtuous and qualified members.

Everybody, all politicians on Left and Right, agree that meritocracy is a great thing, and we should all be trying to make our societies really, really meritocratic.

One enduring political myth that went down with Bo, the former Communist Party boss of Chongqing municipality, is the notion that the Party s rule is based on meritocracy.

Yet it was a British social scientist (and Labour Party politician), Michael Young, who forty years ago wrote a much debated book entitled The Rise of the Meritocracy .

To this must be added another feature that Young described meritocracy means only that another ruling group closes the gates behind it once it has achieved its status.

In many ways, Bo personified the Chinese concept of meritocracy well educated, intelligent, sophisticated, and charming (mainly to Western executives). But, after his fall, a very different picture emerged.

So, private property you have this situation where it just goes from, maybe, father to son from parent to a child, so it's not even based on any type of meritocracy.

When meritocracy is downgraded, as it has been during the Bush years, bad things happen. Worst of all, racism has flourished, because productivity and social utility have become less effective in protecting targets of discrimination.

I don t like quotas either they run counter to my belief in meritocracy. But, when one considers the obstacles to achieving the meritocratic ideal, it does look as if a fairer world must be temporarily mandated.

Free software hackers culturally concretize a number of liberal themes and sensibilities for example, through their competitive mutual aid, avid free speech principles, and implementation of meritocracy along with their frequent challenge to intellectual property provisions.

In Singapore, the enjoyment of women's rights was ensured through legislation and a firm belief in equal opportunity, grounded in the principle of meritocracy. Women were not perceived as a minority or disadvantaged group requiring special attention.

That appears to be the case with the Bo Xilai affair in China. One enduring political myth that went down with Bo, the former Communist Party boss of Chongqing municipality, is the notion that the Party s rule is based on meritocracy.

Given such systemic debasement of merit, few Chinese citizens believe that they are governed by the best and the brightest. But astonishingly, the myth of a Chinese meritocracy remains very much alive among Westerners who have encountered impressively credentialed officials like Bo.

Who would not wish to live in a meritocracy? It is certainly preferable to a plutocracy, in which wealth determines status, or a gerontocracy, in which age leads one to the top, or even an aristocracy, in which what counts are inherited titles and properties.