Author’s Response
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10434193 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel A Bell (0000-0002-5521-3383, University of Hong Kong, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 88 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 101-104 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Review of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0034670525100430 |
| OpenAlex | W7128169991 |
| Language | EN |
Political meritocracy is the idea that the political system should aim to select and promote public officials with superior ability and virtue. The ideal was developed in pre-Qin Chinese history by Confucianism and other schools of political thought. A similar ideal is put forward in Plato’s Republic but political meritocracy has been central the Chinese political thinking for about 2,500 years. It was institutionalized in imperial China by means of a complex bureaucratic system designed to select and promote superior public officials that lasted more than two millennia. The imperial system collapsed in 1912 but the meritocratic bureaucratic system has been reestablished in form (but not content) over the last four decades in China
Bureaucracy · China · Ideal (ethics · Meritocracy · Political system · Politics · Chinese history and philosophy · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Political Philosophy and Ethics
| Highly cited | No |
|---|