The Meritocratic Promise of Classical Liberalism: Restoring Equality of Opportunity in the Age of Market Triumphalism

neoliberal and increasingly plutocratic as well as nepotistic manifestation responsible for the growing discontentment with the ‘liberal order’ during the past approximately four decades. Instead, the meritocratic promise inherent to classical liberalism must be taken more serious as a principle of justice and efficiency which – in turn – should be instrumentalized as an imperative for the provision of substantially greater equality of opportunity. The argument culminates in an advocacy for significantly higher levels of state regulations – for example via taxation to make higher education accessible to all sufficiently talented students independent of their family background – based on the claim that such interventions are justified if they bring about the levelled playing field necessary to a genuine meritocracy. Correspondingly, the author proposes policies more frequently associated with the postulates of social welfare egalitarians, however, he does so exclusively from within the pond of classical liberal principles.