Abstract

This essay makes a critical analysis of three volumes recently released in Italy on issues related to meritocracy. The first (Santambrogio) defends it from the criticisms of legitimizing inequality, believing that the latter is determined by non-compliance with the selective criteria, in my opinion failing to distinguish the use of the term meritocracy as an ideological device from that referring to non-compliance with the rules. The second volume (Ricolfi-Mastrocola) criticizes the lowering of the quality and selectivity of education, considering it the result of corporateization and classism, removing the process of subsumption of the latter in the former and the classism operating in neo-capitalist society. The third (Salerno) studies the relationship between meritocracy and the Italian constitution, interpreting the promotion of the opportunities of the subjects as an opportunity to compete, justifying this not with the republican constitution but with sources relating to the European treaties of ordoliberal inspiration