Meritocracy is the idea that society should be governed by individuals with most intellectual and professional competence. It is distinguished from aristocratic systems as it rewards earned, not inherited status. It is also a natural opposite of populism or ochlocracy which posit the rule by "common people".
Meritocracy was first proposed during the Axial Age by Plato in his work Republic, where he described a utopia governed by professionally trained philosophers. Roughly at the same time Confucius proposed the government of junzi (gentlemen). The Chinese Empire, despite being a hereditary monarchy, adopted a system of exams testing candidates for offices, which remained in place for about 2000 years. During this period, China was among the most prosperous and cultures nations on Earth.
Some thinkers of the Enlightenment such as Thomas Jefferson believed that the best political system is the one that finds out "natural aristoi", gives them the best education and promotes them as public servants. Thus the concept of Jeffersonian democracy is contrasted with more populist Jacksonian democracy.
Despite this long history, the word "meritocracy" itself was only coined in the 1950s by British sociologist Alan Fox, who criticized this type of social system for creating inequalities in society. However, the term was later used in a more positive sense, and numerous Western politicians, from Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair and Bill Clinton have declared support for the ideal of meritocracy within a democratic system. There is also an International Meritocracy Party, which has however remained a niche movement.
Russian-born sci-fi writer Yury Nesterenko (George Right) has proposed a closely-related concept of intellectocracy, a modified version of democracy where one's IQ can determine a weight of one's vote, and people with low IQ are banned from voting to prevent the rise of populist movements.