Abstract

This essay is made up of two paragraphs. The first is a summary of Michael Sandel’s new book, The tyranny of merit, with many references to a broad critical panorama on the topic on meritocracy as a neoliberal ideology of disequality; the second paragraph deals with the «backlash» thesis, arguing that contemporary populism is not only a reaction to the privileges of the meritocratic élites but also the result of the spread of meritocratic ideology in the popular classes.