meritocracy

English Wikipedia has an article on:

meritocracy

Wikipedia

From merit +‎ -o- +‎ -cracy, coined by British sociologist Alan Fox in 1956 in an article in Socialist Commentary from May 1956, used as a derisive term,^[1] and popularized by British sociologist Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington in his 1958 book The Rise of the Meritocracy.^[2]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɛɹɪˈtɒkɹəsi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mɛɹəˈtɑkɹəsi/

meritocracy (countable and uncountable, plural meritocracies)

1. Rule by merit and talent.

   As a small nation without natural resources, Singapore relies on education and meritocracy to develop its economy.

   • 2019 September 5, Sarah Leonard, “The Fall of the Meritocracy”, in The New Republic‎^[1]:

     In Markovits’s telling, the rise of the meritocracy is a story of unintended consequences.

   • 2019 September 9, Jennifer Schuessler, “The Meritocrat Who Wants to Unwind the Meritocracy”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     Its faculty has also been a factory of books taking differing positions on the merits and demerits of meritocracy and elite education.

2. A type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.

Though widely used as a term of praise,^[3] the term was originally coined as a satire, and a critique of awarding educational achievement.^[2]

• meritocrat
• meritocratic
• mirrortocracy