THE ARISTOCRACY OF TALENT
HOW MERITOCRACY MADE THE MODERN WORLD
ADRIAN WOOLDRIDGE
Allen Lane, 496pp, £25
‘Merit had been the precious element which would, if nurtured in the young, render the playing field of life and work more level, less populated by those who graced the playing fields of Eton,’ explained John Lloyd in the
Financial Times. But Adrian Wooldridge, political editor of the
Economist, in what Lloyd calls a ‘finely constructed’ book, identifies what he regards as ‘a misguided backlash against meritocracy: a widespread revulsion of elites, first by millions of voters (who have often simply voted for different elites) and more recently by academics and journalists, a significant number of whom believe that the masses have been betrayed – economically, socially and culturally – by the highly educated, who also tend to be highly paid and all but monopolise the top positions.’ He ‘insists that meritocracy must remain, but “moralized”, infused with a largely lacking sense of duty’.
There’s a ‘misguided backlash against meritocracy’
In his review for the Times, James Marriott wrote that ‘meritocracy structures our lives, tells us who we are. The struggle for exam results, university places, prestigious jobs and promotions defines us in a way that would have been incomprehensible a hundred years ago’. Wooldridge ‘quite brilliantly evokes the values and manners of the pluto-meritocrats at the top of society... They would do well to read Wooldridge’s erudite, thoughtful and magnificently entertaining book.’ Its ‘most alarming’ conclusion is that, ‘for all their intellectual peacocking our elites cannot seriously claim any longer to represent the most brilliant members of society. “The engines of upward mobility have been silting up for decades,” Wooldridge writes. Merit risks once again becoming divorced from success.’