Football, Cartoon and the Myth of Meritocracy

The history of the term ―meritocracy‖ is intriguing: it was coined, in the late fifties of the last century, by a polymath social democratic politician, Michael Young, in his prophetic novel The Rise of the Meritocracy. The book was conceived as a satirical critique of animprobable and unfair future society, and the term was used in a negative sense. Sixty years after, things are completely changed the term ―meritocracy‖ took on a positive connotation. The myth of meritocracy coupled with that of the market – the market selects the best and the best are those selected by the market – spread quite uncritically all over the world. In this paper I critically discus this modern myth and analyze the political and economic consequences of adopting it as the main guideline in economic and social policy.