Is Meritocracy a Myth

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• Is Meritocracy a Myth?
• Are Social Classes Dying?

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The Meritocracy Myth What is McNamees
(Rutgers-Camden 1973, Soc Major) and Millers
general argument?
Lets walk through the steps
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First, we suggest that while merit does indeed
affect who ends up with what, the impact of merit
on economic outcomes is vastly overestimated by
the ideology of the American Dream.
How do the distributions of income and wealth
compare to this?
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Second, we identify a variety of nonmerit
factors that suppress, neutralize, or even negate
the effects of merit and create barriers to
individual mobility.We might collectively refer
to these forces as social gravity.
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Nonmerit barriers to mobility

• Cumulative nonmerit advantages of inheritance
• Distribution of social and cultural capital
• Bad luck
• Geography and economic sector
• Unequal educational opportunity
• Changing structure of opportunity
• Discrimination

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How can society be made more meritocratic? But
is a meritocracy desirable? Is equal opportunity
possible without rough equality of condition?
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Clark and Lipset, Are Social Classes
Dying? What is their basic argument? In what
sense are social classes dying?
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Clark and Lipset, Are Social Classes Dying? In
their article they argue...

• new forms of stratification are emerging
• social class is becoming less salient in
  peoples lives
• the concept is becoming outmoded

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What kind of evidence is cited to support their
position? Do you agree or disagree with their
argument?
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An Important Qualification Class remains salient
in sociologists theories and commentaries. We
do not suggest it be altogether abandoned but
complemented by other factors. (Clark and
Lipset, p. 45) A Lively Debate The edited book
includes vigorous rebuttals to Clarks and
Lipsets view, as well as supporting pieces.
Class matters....the question is how much. The
MicroCase exercise, How Does Class Matter?, is
designed to explore this question.