(pirating) 'meritocracy'

MERITOCRACY

A small but significant spat has erupted in Britain recently about the meaning of the word meritocracy. It's especially interesting because not only do we know who coined it, but he's still very much around to argue about it.

The current furore began with the recent British General Election, in which Tony Blair, the Labour Prime Minister, made much of his commitment to what he regularly described as meritocracy. This word is very widely used, even more so in the United States than in Britain. It is usually employed in the sense in which Mr Blair seems from his speeches to have meant it