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Reflections on the meritocracy debate in Britain: a response to Richard Breen and John Goldthorpe 1
Author(s) -
Saunders Peter
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
the british journal of sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.826
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1468-4446
pISSN - 0007-1315
DOI - 10.1080/0007131022000021489
Subject(s) - meritocracy , privilege (computing) , sociology , class (philosophy) , set (abstract data type) , destinations , position (finance) , core (optical fiber) , positive economics , gender studies , political science , epistemology , law , economics , computer science , philosophy , telecommunications , tourism , finance , programming language
A paper by Breen and Goldthorpe recently claimed to have exposed ‘fatal flaws’ in my work on meritocracy in Britain. This paper responds to their criticisms. The results of their re‐analysis of the NCDS data set are shown to be consistent with my earlier findings and arguments. Furthermore, re‐running some of my earlier models using measures that they favour and a method designed to privilege their position, the results once again demonstrate that, while class origins have some effect on class destinations (in particular, for those born into the middle class), ability and effort exert a much greater effect. Based on these results, the paper identifies three core propositions about meritocracy in Britain on which all parties to this debate should now be able to agree.