Zadekpedia

Ask BobAsk a question of every episode, 2009–2023 — answers cite the minute

Meritocracy

6 min read

Part of Ideas.

Start here

Every episode (3)

Who argued it

Alan Dershowitz · Daniel Markovits · Jonathan Rothwell

Economic Policy · Income Inequality · Identity Politics · Civil Liberties · Education · Labor Markets · Public Choice Theory · Occupational Licensing

Background

Meritocracy as a standard for markets and hiring

Bob Zadek treats meritocracy as the test a fair system should pass. In an episode on what he calls crony capitalism, he argues that when government favors a particular company the outcome stops being a meritocracy: he imagines the NFL decreeing that a team in Portland, Maine start every game fourteen points ahead, and says that would not make the NFL a meritocracy and would not mean the best team won Obama Nationalizes General Electric (2011). He applies the same standard to hiring in a later episode, asking why the teaching system does not simply hire the most qualified candidate, “old, young, wherever they come from” A Teacher’s Brave Stand Against Her Union – Rebecca Friedrichs and Terry Pell (2017).

Guests take up the term in different directions. In the crony-capitalism episode, Luigi Zingales agrees that government tries to influence outcomes but argues that businesses using government to influence outcomes in their favor are even more dangerous, and that such efforts are pervasive and hard to monitor in a democracy Obama Nationalizes General Electric (2011). In the immigration episode, Bob Zadek says that Americans who invoke meritocracy and letting the best man win were unwilling to compete when someone would do their job for less money, and calls the resulting policy cowardice and economic protectionism; Alex Nowrasteh adds that immigration restrictions tightened from the 1880s to the 1920s alongside the Federal Reserve system, the income tax and prohibition Let Them All In (2013).

Meritocracy against democracy

Jayant Bhandari argues that democracy is a non- and anti-meritocratic system of governance, because the lowest 51% of a society decides who should rule. He contrasts voting with the way a doctor, lawyer or engineer is selected, saying there is a meritocratic system by which such people are chosen and by which bridges are built, and he calls democracy a cancer that has slowly decayed Western societies Capitalism and Morality: Twin Pillars of the West (2017). Bob Zadek responds that democracy is not automatically a universal good but one element of governance, agreeing with Bhandari Capitalism and Morality: Twin Pillars of the West (2017).

Seniority, tenure and the teaching system

A caller named Nick tells the show that his sister was forced out of the school system and that when he and five scientist friends with biotech experience tried to return to teaching, the union said no and hired five teachers from Poland through the State Department who had never taught in America A Teacher’s Brave Stand Against Her Union – Rebecca Friedrichs and Terry Pell (2017). Bob Zadek puts the question to Rebecca Friedrichs as a disconnect between the goal of hiring the most qualified candidate and a system that is not a meritocracy A Teacher’s Brave Stand Against Her Union – Rebecca Friedrichs and Terry Pell (2017).

Friedrichs agrees that whoever is best for the children should be hired, and describes what she calls a one-two punch: tenure laws the unions pushed for, combined with collectively bargained grievance procedures, which she says make it almost impossible for administrators to act against underperforming or abusive teachers A Teacher’s Brave Stand Against Her Union – Rebecca Friedrichs and Terry Pell (2017).

The case against meritocracy itself

Daniel Markovits tells Bob Zadek that the idea people should get ahead on their own accomplishments rather than their parents’ social class seems right in a basic way, then identifies two problems. First, people who have gotten ahead have the income, wealth and skill to train their children in ways others cannot afford, so admitting students on the merits excludes almost everybody but the rich; at the Ivy Plus colleges, he says, there are more students from households in the top 1% of the income distribution than from the entire bottom half. Second, in the workplace these super-educated people change how companies operate in ways that favor their own rare training, capture the productivity for themselves and reduce job opportunities for everybody else Daniel Markovits on the (De)Merits of Meritocracy (2019).

Bob Zadek frames the episode around his own reversal, saying Markovits has caused him to question a core belief and asking what is wrong with meritocracy that seems so universally good Daniel Markovits on the (De)Merits of Meritocracy (2019).

Merit as a basis for governance

Vít Jedlička says the constitution of Liberland was inspired by the US constitution, a little by Swiss democracy and a little by the Singapore meritocracy, and that the government is divided into three branches Founding the Free Republic of Liberland (2021). In the institution he describes, people do not vote one person, one vote but one person and as many merits as they have, so that those who have done more for the country or paid more voluntary taxes have a bigger say; he calls this one of the principles that needs to be fixed with regular democracy Founding the Free Republic of Liberland (2021). Laws passed by the government are subject to three vetoes — by citizens on a one person, one vote basis, by a Senate he describes as a House of Elders, and by a Constitutional Court Founding the Free Republic of Liberland (2021).

Across episodes: meritocracy as a contested term

The episodes show no single line of development but a term pulled in opposite directions. Bob Zadek uses meritocracy in 2011 and 2017 as the standard markets and hiring should meet Obama Nationalizes General Electric (2011) A Teacher’s Brave Stand Against Her Union – Rebecca Friedrichs and Terry Pell (2017); Bhandari in 2017 and Markovits in 2019 turn it against democracy and against meritocracy itself Capitalism and Morality: Twin Pillars of the West (2017) Daniel Markovits on the (De)Merits of Meritocracy (2019); and Jedlička in 2021 builds merit weighting into a constitution Founding the Free Republic of Liberland (2021). The earlier treatment defends merit as fair competition, the later treatments question what merit-based selection actually produces.

Backlinks