In a World Governed by Merit, All the Poor Are Undeserving
In a World Governed by Merit, All the Poor Are Undeserving

Summary/Abstract: The 2016 election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, Brexit, and the rising support for authoritarian figures elsewhere have left politicians and commentators scrambling to understand where politics has gone wrong. These events have been widely interpreted as populist backlashes against rising inequalities, globalisation, immigration, and the elites. But there may be a deeper story that most commentators have missed. Michael J. Sandel argues that at the heart of this widespread popular discontent lie the social attitudes generated by the meritocratic discourse that politicians of all stripes have been pushing for the past four decades. Written in the gripping and accessible style that has become Sandel’s calling card, this book mounts a powerful case that Western democracies have gone wrong by putting merit at the centre of politics.

• Details
• Contents