Meritocracy

Your Name

Instructor Name

Course Number

Date

Meritocracy

In what ways is meritocracy a flawed concept?

With a rise of a question related to civil rights, inequalities or discrimination we are often reminded that we all in a society are in a race and striving for an ideal. The ideal of meritocracy, where people are rewarded on the basis of their merits and demerits CITATION Cas10 \l 1033 (Castilla and Benard, The Paradox of Meritocracy in Organizations). Why meritocracy is a flawed concept? The first thing of today's world is nowhere in the world we can say any state is totally meritocracy. This is because human judgment is prone to all sorts of conscious and unconscious prejudices. Meritocracy is an ideal concept that cannot gain a level of implementation. Meritocracy does not consider those who are the fittest in society. By that mean only a few percentages of the society will have every privilege.

What is the historical trajectory of the term?

Meritocracy basically refers to a political system, which is based upon the vesting of political power and economic goods in individual people. The term "meritocracy" came for the first time in 1958 by Michael Young CITATION All11 \l 1033 (Allen). The concept of meritocracy after its appearance arises the serious questions of inequality CITATION Mil99 \l 1033 (Miller). The researchers consider that the concept is ideal but not implementable as not all the people of society start equal. Moreover, there are people in the system who cannot be awarded on the basis of their efforts or contributions.

Why is it problematic for American society?

American Society believes in the meritocracy system where they are in huge favor of compensating people on the basis of their efforts and performance. In America, there is a diversity as people from different races and cultures. Meritocracy could be an ideal approach to be implemented in America and to the world, America is following meritocracy for last two decades. The problem with American society is highlighted when Emilio J. Castilla investigated the meritocracy in America and published a much unexpected results. The publication shows how meritocracy is supporting inequalities and the factor of race and color is still prevailing CITATION Cas08 \l 1033 (Castilla, Gender, Race, and Meritocracy in Organizational Careers). Keeping this in view there are other research carried out and explain their results as meritocracy is showing to be pretty fair for America but that is not the case. Meritocracy seems to be the most bias system for American society CITATION Unz12 \l 1033 (Unz). Being committed to the meritocracy concept and principles, people think they are making correct evaluations but the researches have denied then with proof by evaluating the American society.

Why does it possess such resonance in our culture?

The concept of resonance revolves around the idea that there is a fit between the message and the perceptions of the audience. Keeping the pragmatic view in mind, it can be argued that cultural objects can be used to assist people with resolving the practical challenges of life or that either come in their way or are constructed by themselves. Our society accepts the fact that there should be better compensation for those who put their extra efforts in doing a particular work CITATION Jos \l 1033 (Joseph). For that reason, our culture accepts meritocracy concepts. However, meritocracy is seemed as not the one which can be adopted because meritocracy is not implementable in every society CITATION Wha15 \l 1033 (Whalen). As an America, there is racism and for that, the researchers have shown how white people get privileges through the meritocracy concept. Even though they are already privileged for being white. Here comes a difference, why we as a culture support meritocracy and why even at the same point our culture rejects it.

Works Cited:

BIBLIOGRAPHY Allen, Ansgar. "Michael Young’s The Rise of the Meritocracy: A Philosophical Critique." British Journal of Educational Studies (2011): 367-382. Document.

Castilla, Emilio J. and Stephen Benard. "The Paradox of Meritocracy in Organizations." Administrative Science Quarterly (2010): 543-676.

Castilla, Emilio J. . "Gender, Race, and Meritocracy in Organizational Careers." American Journal of Sociology (2008): 1479-1526.

Joseph, Reagle. "Naive Meritocracy and the Meanings of Myth." American Women Development Fund (2017).

Miller, David. Principles of Social Justice. London: Harvard University Press, 1999. book.

Unz, Ron . "The Myth of American Meritocracy." The American Conservative (2012): 14-51.

Whalen, Charles . "Book Review: Debunking the Meritocracy Myth." 2015.