Power, populism, and a policy of grace: Moral perspectives in The Tyranny of Merit and Cut Loose

Abstract

We argue that the compelling critical perspective put forward by Michael Sandel in The Tyranny of Merit could benefit from the account of power that Cut Loose advanced in its earlier typology. First, the ways that principles of meritocracy serve the interests of particular social groups become clearer when we consider more fully the tensions that inherently exist between merit and other conceptions of the good. Second, the allure of these competing moral perspectives – above all, fraternal morality – helps us make sense of the turn toward nativist populism that we have seen in the United States and elsewhere. Amid the steady unraveling of religious and republican ties, a White working class has responded to its relative economic decline, in part, by seeking solace in ethnocentrism. Third, we argue that the morality of grace can offer an alternative source of existential meaning, which meritocracy – with its focus on contentless excellence – lacks, and which egalitarianism – with its materialist and secular viewpoint – often struggles to cultivate. Here, we turn to Sandel’s earlier book, What Money Can’t Buy, for inspiration, seeing grace as not just the absence of a meritocratic ethic of merciless competition, but a source of value, fulfillment, and connection in itself. We end our essay with a description of what such an economy and politics of grace might look like.