Populism, Elitism and Identity

In 1957, the sociologist Michael YoungYoung, Michael published a book entitled The Rise of the MeritocracyRise of the meritocracy, the (The rise of the meritocracy. Transactions Publications, [1957] 1994). In it he imagined what BritainBritain would be like in 2034, writing as if he were an official living in that year and looking back over the cumulative previous decades and attempting to predict what might occur during the following ones. His imaginings were eerily prescient, seeing a landscape of disgruntlement and discontent, with a new “meritocratic” credentialed class running affairs but contested by disaffected and less educated masses whose mobility had actually decreased. His point was satirical, a sending up of the confidence in education as a social leveller. A lifelong Labour Party activist, Young was disappointed that Prime Minister Tony Blair had taken up his new word as an official policy aim, and he argued that while meritocracy was good for placing qualified people into specific jobs, it was bad when it was allowed to harden into class privilege. Which is exactly what arguably has ended up happening.