Qualification Matters More Than Desert

Due to the scarcity of social resources,meritocracy,which requires that more resources should be allocated to the talented people on the basis of equal opportunities and fair competition,so that the talented people will be placed in a position of dominance in the society,is widely accepted.Meritocracy is in line with the pursuit of efficiency of society,and from a certain degree,it produces a kind of distribution of social resources that attach great importance to aspirations,preferences and efforts of every person.So meritocracy has its own advantage without doubt.However,this paper argues that meritocracy also has its limitations and is not applicable to all spheres of distribution of social resources.For example,when assigning some jobs and education opportunities that do not require high ability,the concept of "qualification",which means that limited but qualified ability is sufficient and enough for candidates to get the chances,even when there is a competitor whose ability is higher than his,rather than the concept of "desert",which means that in the competition,people with the higher ability is always better than those with lower ability,and people with the most ability deserve opportunities.The overuse of meritocracy which beyond its applicable spheres,can lead to injustice.In order to criticize the principle of merit-based selection which is the core concept of meritocracy,and to illustrate a principle in distributive justice which insists that "qualification matters more than desert",this paper is based on Walzer’s complex equality theory.In Chapter 1,this paper discusses the necessity of imparity in the distribution and meritocracy to which it leads,given the scarcity of social resources;Chapter 2,introduces the meaning and its historical changes of meritocracy,and sorts out criticisms from different scholars about meritocracy;Chapter 3 uses the complex equality theory from Walzer to prove that the injustice of the merit-based selection system;Chapter 4 shows how to revise the merit-based selection system of meritocracy,and further illustration will be made by taking the college entrance examination in China as an example;Chapter 5 provides a brief summary.