The Fabian Debate and the Sources of Michael Young’s The Rise of Meritocracy

Abstract

The essay aims to reconstruct the theoretical-political premises of The Rise of Meritocracy (1958) by Michael Young and his criticism of Labour dirigism and the English school system of the time. The influence of the ethical socialism of Richard Henry Tawney, the mutualism of George Douglas Howard Cole and the anti-classism of William Morris will be shown, as well as the critical targets, that is, Fabian authors such as George Bernard Shaw, the Webb couple and Herbert George Wells. The essay concludes by highlighting the intellectual political relationship between Young and Anthony Crosland, author, in 1956, of The Future of Socialism.