ABSTRACT
With a focus on China and Singapore as illustrative examples of political meritocracy in practice, this chapter argues that there exists a very real gap between the ideals of political meritocracy and how these ideals actually play out in reality. In outlining this gap, this chapter examines how the meritocratic attributes of leaders, the emphasis on fairness and justness, and the differing ways crises are dealt with in political meritocracies compared to democracies should make political meritocracies better equipped at preventing potential populist uprisings. However, as we argue, in actuality these ideals have seemingly not prevented elements of a populist type of politics popping up in both China and Singapore, with evidence of populism manifesting in a variety of ways in both countries.
