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Business Daily: Is the West really meritocratic?

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A Meritocracy Trap?

15/10/2019 GMT

Is the West really meritocratic?

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Is the West really meritocratic?

US academic and author Daniel Markovits argues that meritocracy fuels inequality

US academic and author Daniel Markovits argues that meritocracy in Western free-market economies is a myth that fuels inequality.

We hear the arguments of leading US academic and author, Daniel Markovits, whose book The Meritocracy Trap argues that meritocracy in the United States and other Western free-market economies is a myth that fuels inequality.

Temba Maqubela, the head of The Groton School - one of America's top private schools - outlines the role that elite establishments such as his could play in helping less advantaged students. Meanwhile Samina Khan, director of undergraduate admissions at Oxford University, says top universities like hers are working hard to target a more diverse range of applicants. Plus Kiruba Munusamy, an advocate at the Supreme Court of India, describes how a system of positive discrimination helped her get a top job despite India's caste system.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Photo: Signposts for Yale and Harvard, Credit: Getty Images)

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