Meritocracy: the Third Way and the Effervescence of Capital

Since the social-democrats dismissed the communist utopia and privileged instead the idea of a well-being founded on the production-consumption cycle, the Western electoral competition has been increasingly focused on the capitalist economy. Accordingly, the political dynamics shifted from the class conflict to the regulation of markets. On the social side, the removal of the previous conflict has freed the “spirit of capitalism” that has been able to settle even more pervasively in the symbolic relations between people. This new philosophy of money triggers a social game played on competition and the reward mechanism derived from it. In this sense, meritocracy is the criterion for governing this new order of capitalism. Within this context, this article discusses the contribution of the left movements and parties, in their historical-social evolution, to the construction of a meritocratic principle in Europe. It also investigates the political process that led the left to a strategic choice, among the other possible options for renewal: namely, to give up to the struggle against capitalism and privilege a progressive accommodative logic with regard to the market. We argue that this choice was based both on values and interests shared by political actors and was supported at a theoretical level by a group of intellectuals who recognize themselves in the Third Way. Based on the above, the article shall identify the main stages in this political change, by using an appropriate selection of discourses and texts that refer to Third Way, analyzing them through a sociological perspective.