The Meritocracy Debate of the Eighteenth Century
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Published online on June 25, 2026
Abstract
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 717, Issue 1, Page 98-114, January 2025.
Meritocracy has rightly received increasing attention among scholars in recent years, but relatively little has been written about its history. This article traces the history of the idea back to the eighteenth century when Mandeville, Rousseau, and Kant ...
Meritocracy has rightly received increasing attention among scholars in recent years, but relatively little has been written about its history. This article traces the history of the idea back to the eighteenth century when Mandeville, Rousseau, and Kant ...