source: The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel, Chapter 1

We’ve been seeing a rise of populism, which we attribute to malevolent demagogues or a misdirected public. However, the governing elites bear responsibility for creating conditions for populism to gain popularity

  • When there’s less dignity of work, the working class feels disrespected

Technocracy & Globalization

The technocratic conception of politics is meant to replace traditional left vs right politics

  • relies on faith in public markets
  • agnostic moral arguments
  • assumes that governance should be handled by experts

This started in the 1980s with Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, then continued into the 90s with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. They all assumed that markets were the solution to all problems

  • manifests as global trade agreements and deregulation
  • the benefits flowed mostly to the top

Obama focused on moral energy and civic idealism as a candidate, but this didn’t carry over to his presidency

  • Anger over the bailout galvanized populists in the US

The Rhetoric of Rising

The US has faith in economic mobility

  • 70% of Americans think the poor can make it out of poverty on their own
  • The US has a less-generous welfare state than most major European countries

Today’s meritocracy has hardened into a hereditary aristocracy

Mobility doesn’t compensate for inequality

  • Why do the talented deserve such an outsized reward?

The politics of humiliation

In this environment, the message for people who can’t make ends meet is that it’s their own fault

  • one result: complaints that the system is rigged
  • another result: resentment towards winners and nagging self-doubt

One very deep political divide in the United States: college educated vs non-college educated

Hillary Clinton: “I won the places that represent two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward”

Donal Trump used the politics of humiliation

  • his stance on climate change was about averting humiliation, which resonated with his base

Technocratic Merit & Moral Judgement

One vision of good governance is to separate merit and moral judgement. We sometimes outsource moral and political judgement to markets

  • economists advise on policy
  • we use markets to achieve public good
  • we define wellbeing in economic terms

The results: less solidarity, shallow bonds of citizenship, impoverished public discourse

The Populist Uprising

The Rise of Meritocracy (1958, Michael Young) — predicted many of the consequences of meritocracy