Class inequality and meritocracy: a critique of Saunders and an alternative analysis

Saunders' recent work claiming that contemporary British society is to a la rge extent 'meritocratic' is criticized on conceptual and technical grounds . A reanalysis of the National Child Development Study data-set, used by Sa unders, is presented. This reveals that while merit, defined in terms of ab ility and effort, does play a part in determining individuals' class destin ations, the effect of class origins remains strong. Children of less advant aged class origins need to show substantially more merit than children from more advantaged origins in order to gain similar class positions. These di fferences in findings to some extent arise from the correction of biases in troduced by Saunders; but there are also features of his own results, consi stent with those reported in the reanalysis, which he appears not to have f ully appreciated.