In 1958, the English sociologist Michael Young famously invented the term “meritocracy.” Sixty years later—after a financial crisis, a major recession, record-high inequality, and stubborn racial gaps have led to skepticism about opportunity in America—Young's formulation is afire. In less than a decade, we've seen an outpouring of articles and books on meritocracy's contribution to America's ills. The library includes MSNBC host (and Brown graduate) Chris Hayes's Twilight of the Elites, Harvard law professor Lani Guinier's The Tyranny of the Meritocracy, and Cornell economist Robert Frank's Success and Luck: Good Fortune and The Myth of the Meritocracy; soon to come is Harvard professor Michael Sandel's The Tyranny of Merit.
The Meritocracy Trap, by Oxford-educated, Yale law professor Daniel Markovits, is the latest entry into this crowded arena. Markovits is fully aware of the irony of his resume, given his disgust with the system by which American society chooses its elites, and he's got lots of company. As economist (yes, Harvard-educated ) Tyler Cowen has quipped: “The best critiques of the meritocracy have come from those with extreme merit.” I'll come back to this puzzle later, for it's one that Markovits's book, like others in the genre, doesn't fully explore.
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