The Effects of Elite Recruitment on Social Cohesion and Economic Development

The aim of this paper is to analyze whether the recruitment of elites in the Western world leads to social cohesion, or to the opposite -social stratification. We show that the main change that occurred in the way the Western world trained its elites is that meritocracy became the basis for their recruitment. Although meritocratic selection should result in the best being chosen, we show that meritocratic recruitment actually leads to class stratification and auto-recruitment. In consequence meritocracy and the democratization of higher education do not lead to social cohesion. We then check the effects of the recruitment of elites and social stratification on economic growth. We show that these effects are dependent upon the type of technological changes occurring in the country.