Expansion Without Equalisation
Michael Young coined meritocracy in The Rise of the Meritocracy (1958) as a satire. He warned that allocating status by ability creates a smug elite and a blamed underclass.
Does educational expansion equalise life chances? Raymond Boudon separated social origin into two distinct effects:
| Effect | Mechanism | Where it acts |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Origin shapes academic attainment via early environment | Before the choice point |
| Secondary | Origin shapes the choice to stay on at equal grades | At the choice point |
Other theorists offer rival mechanisms:
- Bourdieu and Passeron: schools reward cultural capital acquired at home.
- Basil Bernstein: inequality works through socialised language codes.
- Paul Willis: working-class lads resist school culture, reproducing their class position.
Comparative Patterns
Two models describe how inequality persists despite expansion:
- Maximally maintained inequality (Raftery and Hout): origin gaps persist until advantaged classes saturate that level.
- Effectively maintained inequality (Lucas): after saturation, advantage shifts to qualitative differences, such as elite institutions.
Shavit and Blossfeld found stable origin gaps across thirteen countries. Later research found real equalisation in several European nations.
Spain illustrates rapid change. Early school leaving among 18 to 24 year olds dropped from 31 per cent in 2008 to 14 per cent in 2023 (Eurostat). This was a major decline in the European Union, though still above the EU benchmark near 10.
Common pitfall: confusing higher participation with equal opportunity. Expanding places reduces relative gaps only if origin effects at transitions fall.