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What’s Wrong With Meritocracy

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What’s Wrong With Meritocracy
A Harvard University building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Aug. 30, 2018. The U.S. Justice Department sided with Asian-Americans suing Harvard over admissions policy. Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Paul Adams
Updated:
Commentary

Meritocracy is a system in which people accumulate wealth and power on the basis of their abilities as measured by examinations, rather than through birth, inheritance, or corruption.

Paul Adams
Paul Adams
Author
Paul Adams is a professor emeritus of social work at the University of Hawai‘i, and was professor and associate dean of academic affairs at Case Western Reserve University. He is the co-author of "Social Justice Isn’t What You Think It Is," and has written extensively on social welfare policy and professional and virtue ethics.
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