ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to explicating the conceptual structure of meritocracy. This includes getting clear about the concepts of desert and merit, and the connection between them. Relevant conceptual issues include the aboutness principle, comparative and non-comparative desert, fair and formal equality of opportunity, and the distinction between pre-institutional desert and post-institutional entitlement. A transcendental argument is given for equal opportunity: A just society gives people what they deserve; economic desert requires equal opportunity; therefore, we should establish equal opportunity. Although equal opportunity may require government intrusion into family matters long thought inviolable, this intrusion is justified when parents seek to fulfill their own plans-of-life at the expense of their children’s. The chapter concludes with an argument against forward-looking desert; a discussion of the differences between luck egalitarianism and desert-based justice; and a survey of the efficiency benefits of equal opportunity.
