Even though it has produced fine civil engineers, without a meritocracy they rarely get the gigs.
May uses the word "meritocracy" without irony, though it was coined by Michael Young in a dystopian satire.
Certainly, they began to think, there was some way of bringing African-Americans together and promoting their interests without challenging the meritocracy itself and creating a backlash.
The speeches reflected "this real belief in meritocracy without necessarily confronting the structural, racial impediments to it", she said, that would no longer satisfy black voters.
We can have both: elitist, private institutions for those born with a silver colonoscope, and the advantages of a meritocracy, without financial impediments limiting the educational prospects of the rest of us.
While festivals absolutely should adopt a degree of positive discrimination (history proves that if you leave it to meritocracy without intervention, little will change), it's unlikely that the larger ones will, unless it's in their financial favour.
And the awkward truth about what Reeves calls "meritocracy without mobility" is that it actually suits the 20% pretty well, allowing them to feel good about the society they live in without much risking their own children's prospects.
Silicon Valley is, without doubt, a meritocracy.
However, if taking pointers from China sounds rather unappealing to the average American, perhaps dipping one's toe into Singapore can provide an understanding of meritocracy without having to deal with the excess baggage that comes with Communism.
The new ministry will struggle without a system of meritocracy, the competent execution of state policy or adequate resources, says immunologist Gabriela Delgado, at the National University of Colombia in Bogota.
