Markets, merit and the dignity of labour

In The Tyranny of Merit, Sandel recasts the discontent expressed in populism as a rejection of market morality and as an inarticulate plea for the restoration of civic virtue. He argues that a ‘market-based globalisation project’ has fostered meritocratic ideas which humiliate the victims of that project and undermine the dignity of labour. I question Sandel’s claim that meritocracy is a market value and the dignity of labour is not. I argue that his account of a moral alternative to normal market institutions – an economy in which individuals’ rewards are somehow aligned with their true merits – is deeply incoherent.