Meritocracy and its discontents

MERITOCRACY is in the core of Singapore’s psyche and is generally believed to be a major force behind the nation’s economic success. Indeed, since the times of Plato’s Republic, meritocracy has been credited with allocating responsibilities and resources according to an individual’s talent and effort, thus bringing about superior social outcomes. Undoubtedly, using talent and effort as an allocative mechanism is better than using nepotism and patronage, the systems that preceded the advent of meritocratic institutions.

This positive view on meritocracy is also espoused by Singapore’s younger generation. To measure the extent of this belief, I collected responses from NUS students from 2020 to 2023. The students were enrolled in two courses that I was involved in, and they came from a multitude of academic disciplines, from engineering and the sciences to law and humanities.

Their outright support for meritocracy was strong. When they were polled at the start of a lecture on meritocracy on whether they approved of the concept, their answer was positive at a rate of 81 per cent (903 out of 1,119 responses recorded).