polanalysis

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1 University of Toronto Scarborough Final paper Political Analysis Ali Saleh POLC78 Renan Levine November 24th, 2023 1003613850 (2860 words)

2 Executive Summary: This paper explores varying notions and perceptions surrounding meritocracy in Toronto. The purpose is to determine whether a correlation exists between perceptions of meritocracy and political orientation. This research relies on qualitative data gathered from three sets of structured interviews from a University of Toronto colleague, a family member and a student at Toronto Metropolitan University. Towards this, I argue that meritocracy indeed is correlated with political orientation since citizens that hold the values presupposed by strong views of meritocracy tend to vote for conservatives, as opposed to citizens who are less inclined to hold these values, who vote for progressive politicians. The results have been mixed and do not paint a clear picture as to the connection between meritocracy and political orientation and whether orientation varies with perceptions on meritocracy. Therefore, I suggest more research in this area needs to be concluded to reach a definitive conclusion. Key Words: meritocracy, inequality, individualism, collectivism, political orientation, perceptions, social mobility Introduction The overarching theme of this paper will be meritocracy and inequality. Research in perceptions and political attitudes surrounding meritocracy and inequality is vast and disparate in scope. The implications for policy are equally vast, since these perceptions and attitudes are known to influence engagement in education, employment and influences our understanding of social mobility, wealth distribution and welfare (cite). To explore this, I will endeavour to answer the following: How does a perception of meritocracy influence views on policy? Specifically, does an entrenched belief in the values of meritocracy shape Canadians political orientation? For my hypothesis, I contend there is a correlation between perceptions of meritocracy and political orientations for Canadian citizens. I hold this conviction since it is my understanding that conservatives tend to value a ‘pull yourself up by the bootstraps’ mentality that values hard work, individualism and self sustenance. This stands in contrast against more liberally oriented groups who emphasize the importance of community solidarity and value progressive and redistributive policies for eliminating structural barriers that impede change. That said, my views are transitory and reserved as I am flexible and open to having my mind changed on the issue. Towards this end, I have conducted three interviews to test this hypothesis. The paper will be formatted as follows. I will begin by providing qualifying definitions to give critical contextual background for the topic. Then, I will provide the interview transcript

3 and the qualitative data gathered as a result. This will be examined and assessed with reference to the constructs and indicators as outlined in the first section. Finally, I will wrap up the paper with an evaluation that gathers the findings and synthesizes them to determine whether there is grounds to reassess the thesis. There will be a brief point on steps for next directions for emerging research on the topic. Operational Constructs To begin, I will provide formative definitions for terms critical to this research. The term meritocracy was coined by the British sociologist Michael Young in his book The Rise of Meritocracy (Hing et al, 2011). The term refers to an envisioned socially stratified society where outcomes in terms of wealth, employment and power are distributed on the basis of merit. Merit is a dynamic concept that is exceptionally culturally construed (Kalantzis et al, 1988). For the sake of parsimony, I will apply the common understanding of merit that stems from individual skills and competence in a particular domain or field. An individual's skills and competence is necessarily bound up with dexterity and intelligence, yet, this also connotes e ff ort and a willingness to undergo hardship to strive towards achievement. For this reason, skills and competence will be operationalized under two constructs: a) competence which includes the indicators intelligence and mastery of craft b) e ff ort which includes the indicators 'willingness to work hard' and 'work ethic'. The concept of meritocracy is grounded in the belief that success and achievement in society occurs as a result of individual merit, as understood from the aforementioned explanation. From the outset, it is apparent that meritocracy also presupposes a concept of merit that is bound with individual achievement. Individualism in this sense emphasizes the agency of individuals in shaping the trajectory of their life. An individualist society is characterized by one where the values of self reliance and self su ﬃ ciency trump the value of strong communal a ﬃ liation (Kyriacou, 2026). Everyone is self interested and in recognition of this social fact,

4 everyone is expected to fend for themselves and their loved ones. This stands in contrast to collectivism, which emphasizes strength in numbers, group solidarity and identity grounded in community interests. In a collectivist society, the interests of the group prevail over individual interests, as each member has mutual obligations to the group and is expected to be loyal to the group. The rationale behind this is individuals gravitate towards groups that share their values and goals and sacrificing one's individual whims and desires for group outcomes is preferable to self reliance. Since an assessment of individual merit requires an understanding of the individual in a vacuum, it should come as no surprise that individualism is subsumed within meritocratic systems. That said, an argument can be made that meritocracy is further bound up in notions of productivity and e ﬃ ciency as a corollary of individualism, which suggests meritocratic inclided individualism will likely lean towards free markets than collectivized welfare (Daniels, 1976). Bearing this in mind, meritocracy is interpreted as an ideal that society ought to strive towards. In this ideal, only the relevant inputs, in this case competence and e ff ort, yield the relevant outputs of success and personal fulfillment. The upshot of this ideal is it strives to undermine irrelevant factors that are arbitrary and do not bear on the aforementioned outputs, such as ethnicity or religion. However, as highlighted by Young, the emphasis on merit based outcomes risks reinforcing an unequal status quo dominated by elite groups who are further entrenched by a belief in meritocracy (Hing et al, 2011). Further, it is questionable whether meritocracy, when it is not referred to in 'all else equal' terms, truly reflects society and modus operandi of social hierarchies or whether it is a fashionable myth we tell ourselves to justify our worldviews (Lawton, 2000). Meritocracy can overlook other important extraneous factors such as the e ff ects of discrimination, inheritance, and socioeconomic privileges. There is much to be said on this contentious issue that lies beyond the parameters of this paper. Su ﬃ ce it to say, a commitment to meritocracy may be more indicative of cultural values and beliefs than in reality.

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