The Rise and Rise of Meritocracy
Political Quarterly Special Issues
1. Edition December 2006
284 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Fifty years after the term "meritocracy" was coined,
this book asks where the idea of meritocracy has led.
* * A team of commentators consider diverse topics such as family
and meritocracy, meritocracy and ethnic minorities, and what is
meant by talent
* * Contains commentaries by a selection of researchers, activists
and politicians, from Asa Briggs to David Willetts, on the origin,
meaning and future of meritocracy
* * Demonstrates that Michael Young, who wrote The Rise of the
Meritocracy, was right to question the viability of political
systems trying to organise themselves around the idea of
meritocracy
* * Essential reading for everyone interested in where we are
going, and the future of New Labour itself
Notes on Contributors viii
Introduction: Reviewing Meritocracy 1
Geoff Dench
Origin and Reception 15
The Labour Party as Crucible 17
Asa Briggs
Meritocracy in the Civil Service, 1853-1970 27
Jon Davis
A Tract for the Times 36
Paul Barker
We Sat Down at the Table of Privilege and Complained about the Food 45
Hilary Land
The Chequered Career of a Cryptic Concept 61
Claire Donovan
Looking Back on Meritocracy 73
Michael Young
Relevance to Modem Britain 79
A Brief Profile of the New British Establishment 81
Jim Ogg
Face, Race and Place: Merit and Ethnic Minorities 90
Michelynn Laflèche
Marginalised Young Men 97
Yvonne Roberts
The Unmaking of the English Working Class 105
Ferdinand Mount
Age and Inequality 109
Eric Midwinter
Ship of State in Peril 116
Peregrine Worsthorne
Analytical Value 125
The Moral Economy of Meritocracy: or, the Unanticipated Triumph of Reform and the Failure of Revolution in the West 127
Irving Louis Horowitz
Japan at the Meritocracy Frontier: From Here, Where? 134
TAKEHIKO KARIYA And RONALD DORE
Just Rewards: Meritocracy Fifty Years Later 157
Peter Marris
What Do We Mean by Talent? 163
Richard Sennett'
Resolving the Conflict between the Family and Meritocracy 168
Belinda Brown
Meritocracy and Popular Legitimacy 183
Peter Saunders
The Future 195
The New Assets Agenda 197
Andrew Gamble And Rajiv Prabhakar
New Labour and the Withering Away of the Working Class? 205
Jon Cruddas
A Delay on the Road to Meritocracy 214
Peter Wilby
Putting Social Contribution back into Merit 221
Geoff Dench
Ladder of Opportunity or Engine of Inequality? 232
Ruth Lister
The Future of Meritocracy 237
David Willetts
Notes 245
Index 263
