ABSTRACT
In our final, concluding chapter, we summarize the arguments made in previous chapters. We argue that political meritocracies are not effective in preventing the rise of populism. While it is true that the presence of populism is relatively muted in China and Singapore compared to their liberal-democratic counterparts, this could arguably have more to do with their respective de facto one-party political systems rather than political meritocracy per se. Furthermore, we argue that even in its ideal-type, political meritocracies would effectively sow the seeds of populist discontent, as they seek not to eliminate inequality, only make the inequality more ‘just’. Given this, we finish with noting that any supposed corrective to the rise of populism, such as political meritocracy, must be seriously and critically examined, in order to avoid any unforeseen, perhaps even worse, consequences.
