Meritocracy Divide

Abstract As a postscript to the collected articles in this forum, this article first discusses how and why a high-stakes test-based admissions system has historically been established in East Asia, contextualizing meritocratic educational selection within the historical experience of “catch-up modernization.” Second, using a theoretical framework of “compressed” modernity and development, it discusses how broader and more recent societal changes have contributed to the development of a high-stakes admissions system. Third, it discusses the implications of these recent changes in admissions for understanding changes in meritocracy. Finally, it describes the problems these rapid and simultaneous changes in admissions and other social spheres have created and what implications these changes have for our understanding of meritocracy in the region. It concludes by discussing how meritocracy has created a new social divide, representing a duality in meritocratic college admissions consisting of traditional high-stakes tests and newly introduced admissions procedures that are more holistic.