Capitalism, class and meritocracy: A cross-national study between the UK and Brazil

Abstract

Drawing on a Marxist theoretical framework, this essay concentrates on the analysis of the roles played by meritocracy in the capitalist system and its impacts on the working classes. This cross-national study discusses economic, ideological, cultural, and political aspects of meritocracy in the United Kingdom and in Brazil. In summary, our analyses indicate towards what we may call ‘a framework of meritocratic values, practices, meanings, and symbols’. Reproducing capitalist relations of power and class, meritocracy functions as an ideological pillar of capitalism’s hegemony and a justification to the inequalities it engenders.