Frank Litton
The Tyranny of Merit. What’s become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel (Penguin Random House, €25.00/£20.00)
Oh let us love our occupations, bless the squire and his relations, live upon our daily rations, and always know our proper stations, so the servants were taught to sing. Democracy put paid to that.
Aristocratic society, once considered the natural order, is no more. The inequalities in power, wealth, and prestige – inevitable consequences of complicated divisions of labour – remain and require new justification. The dominant rationale is now ‘meritocracy.’
Michael J. Sandel, professor of political philosophy at Harvard University, scrutinises the concept revealing its limitations and dire consequences. His skill for bringing complex ideas to life in discussing matters of high concern, that has won him an international reputation, is fully deployed.
The theologian, philosopher and translator of The New Testament, David Bentley Hart provides this concise and accurate picture of former US president Donald Trump: “impossibly stupid, cruel, graceless, racist, sociopathic, an openly fascist buffoon – a confident man known for his conscienceless rapacity, a serial business failure, a ridiculous creature of ‘reality’ television, an inarticulate and functionally illiterate dunce, an inexhaustibly overflowing cesspool of spite. [Roland in Moonlight, Brooklyn, NY: Angelico Press, 2021, p228]. This is the man who was elected president of the United States: surely a matter of high concern.
Defects
Prof. Sandel shows how defects in the meritocratic ideal go a considerable way in accounting for the rise of Mr Trump. The meritocratic ideal has never been achieved. The competition for the prestigious, best-paid, most powerful positions has never been open to all. Prof. Sandel documents these failings. He argues that even if they could be remedied and a level playing field established, serious problems would remain.
We all need to be recognised, our value acknowledged. In a meritocratic society, what social esteem can those who fail, who remain at the bottom of the ladder expect? The gap between the well-educated in well-paid jobs and the uneducated widens.
While the former enjoy the benefits of globalisation, the latter pay its costs. They have less and less chance of a decent job sufficient to support a family in a thriving community. It is hardly surprising that the left-behind support a politician who gives voice to their resentment at those in charge who look down on them from their ‘merited’ positions with disdain and indifference to their plight.
Inequalities
The inequalities that divide democratic societies have been contained by a sense that despite all our conflicting interests we are ‘all in this together’. There is a common good which all citizens are obliged to serve. Prof. Sandel argues that the version of the common good rooted in the liberal democratic tradition that came to full flower with neoliberalism, exacerbates the dysfunctions of meritocracy.
He distinguishes two versions of the common good. The consumption common good presents us as consumers, individuals apart from other individuals with whom we do business motivated by narrow self-interest. It asserts rights rather than define duties; it brings autonomy into the foreground as the realities of our interdependencies fade out of the picture. Its idea of fairness is meritocracy, and of success, wealth. It supposes the market will deliver the common good.
The productive common good draws us into discussion of our interdependencies and our obligation to work for the flourishing of all citizens. It finds its idea of justice in what contributes to that flourishing; success is measured by those contributions.
Prof. Sandel makes a powerful case for the importance of the productive common good. We need to put it centre stage, displacing the consumption common good to the margins.