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What is "meritocracy"

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meritocracy
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
meritocracy
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But it was possible to turn the critique of meritocracy against the schools themselves.
▪ He was evidence that the trading floor was a meritocracy.
▪ However, in a meritocracy, those at the bottom are clearly inferior.
▪ In a meritocracy, talent and ability are efficiently syphoned out of the lower strata.
▪ In the collaborative meritocracy, people who are talented enough and committed enough are rightly seen as indispensable.
▪ Secondly it is a declaration that meritocracy does not operate by default.
▪ The meritocracy that reigned among students thus functioned hardly at all within the faculty.
▪ The institutional racism model thus overlaps with an equal opportunities model which demands self-conscious meritocracy in spirit and in procedures.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
meritocracy

meritocracy \meritocracy\ n.

  1. A form of social system in which power goes to those with superior intellects.

  2. The belief that rulers should be chosen for their superior abilities and not because of their wealth or birth.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
meritocracy

coined 1958 by British sociologist Michael Young (1915-2002) and used in title of his book, "The Rise of the Meritocracy"; from merit (n.) + -cracy. Related: Meritocratic.\n\n[Young's book] imagined an elite that got its position not from ancestry, but from test scores and effort. For him, meritocracy was a negative term; his spoof was a warning about the negative consequences of assigning social status based on formal educational qualifications, and showed how excluding from leadership anyone who couldn’t jump through the educational hoops would create a new form of discrimination. And that’s exactly what has happened.

[Lani Guinier, interview, "New York Times," Feb. 7, 2015]

Wiktionary
meritocracy

n. 1 Rule by merit, and talent. 2 A type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.

WordNet
meritocracy

  1. n. a form of social system in which power goes to those with superior intellects

  2. the belief that rulers should be chosen for their superior abilities and not because of their wealth or birth

Wikipedia
Meritocracy

Meritocracy (merit, from Latin mereō "I earn" and -cracy, from Ancient Greek κράτος "strength, power") is a political philosophy holding that power should be vested in individuals almost exclusively based on ability and talent. Advancement in such a system is based on performance measured through examination and/or demonstrated achievement in the field where it is implemented.

Usage examples of "meritocracy".

Astrodome, Houston was a gleaming meritocracy where social access was available to anyone with enough cash.

Because of his invention, our entire country has slowly swung back toward an individual meritocracy, and Japan has slowly been forced to follow.

Like many of his calling, he both lived in and believed in a meritocracy, in the triumph of superior ideas and the leadership of superior men.

It had read of so many styles of government used by other races and clans-autarchies and aristocracies, technocracies and democracies, syndicates and meritocracies.

It had read of so many styles of government used by other races and clans—autarchies and aristocracies, technocracies and democracies, syndicates and meritocracies.

There are meritocracies, in which the ruling echelon rises from the bureaucracy.