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精英主义的暴政：我们能否找到共同利益？
作者：迈克尔·桑德尔
关于作者
迈克尔·桑德尔在哈佛大学教授政治哲学。他被誉为“摇滚明星般的道德家”（《新闻周刊》）和“当今世界最具影响力的哲学家”（《新政治家》）。桑德尔的著作涵盖正义、伦理、民主和市场等领域，已被翻译成30多种语言。他开设的传奇课程“正义”是哈佛大学首个免费在线课程，观看量达数千万人。他的BBC系列节目“全球哲学家”与来自世界各地的参与者一起探讨新闻头条背后的伦理问题。
这位享誉世界的哲学家、畅销书《正义》的作者探讨了我们这个时代的核心问题：共同利益何在？
对于民主而言，这是一个充满危险的时代。我们生活在一个赢家通吃的时代，在这个时代，原本就幸运的人拥有绝对的优势。社会流动性的停滞和根深蒂固的不平等，无视了美国人“只要努力就能成功”的信条。其结果是，愤怒和沮丧情绪交织在一起，助长了民粹主义抗议和极端两极分化，并导致民众对政府和同胞深感不信任——使我们在道德上毫无准备，无法应对当今时代的严峻挑战。
世界著名哲学家迈克尔·桑德尔认为，为了克服颠覆世界的危机，我们必须重新思考伴随全球化和日益加剧的不平等而来的成功与失败观。桑德尔指出，精英统治制度在成功者中滋生了傲慢自大，并对失败者施加了严苛的评判，他还追溯了这种制度对美国社会各个层面造成的严重后果。他提出了一种看待成功的替代视角——更加关注运气在人类事务中的作用，更加有利于培养谦逊和团结的伦理，也更加肯定工作的尊严。 《精英的暴政》为我们展现了一个充满希望的愿景：一种以公共利益为导向的新政治模式。
《精英的暴政：我们能否找到公共利益？》
莉丝-玛丽·凯泽书评
https://ziwani.com/book-review/the-tyranny-of-merit-can-we-find-the-common-good
迈克尔·桑德尔在其开创性著作《精英的暴政》中，并未质疑精英本身的价值，而是尖锐地揭露了以精英统治为主导的社会的空洞和压迫。他揭示了，当这样的社会中的个人不仅未能获得精英地位，而且即便获得了精英地位，精英地位也会变成一种暴政。
他认同精英地位的重要性。它代表着能力和品质，促进了基于成就的公平，并提高了效率。它奖励那些努力工作、积极主动、勇于承担责任的人。它给人一种自由和掌控感，仿佛在说“我不是环境的受害者，我的努力和才能足以让我攀登到任何高度”。
但是（这是一个非常重要的但是！），让人们为自己的行为负责，和让他们为“自己的命运”负责，这两者之间有着巨大的差别。
现代人“我理应获得成功”的信条，在精英阶层中滋生了傲慢和奢靡，同时也打击了工人阶级的士气。桑德尔指出，在不平等现象日益加剧的情况下，继承的特权所带来的机会和支持才是成功的真正关键——甚至比个人努力更为重要。他认为，即使是“才能决定命运”这种说法也是有缺陷的——如果我们天生拥有社会高度重视的才能，而不是拥有无人问津的才能，那才是幸运的。
那么，这种以能力为导向的“暴政”究竟会对成功者产生怎样的影响呢？不可否认，无情的成功压力导致年轻人普遍出现心理健康问题，并损害了他们的自尊心。由于风险如此之高，为人父母也变成了一种焦虑的“产品开发”。教育本身也不再是关于真正的学习，而是关于“如何包装自己，获得合适的证书”。（自1981年起担任哈佛大学教授的桑德尔亲眼目睹了这种变化。）
对于失败者而言，这种影响更具破坏性。传说中的“机会均等”仍然只是一种幻象。蓝领和白领工人实际上背负着双重负担——要么通过“逆境崛起”来“提升”自己，要么承受失败的重担。
桑德尔认为，我们必须承认，精英制度并非（正如人们经常争论和广泛接受的那样）解决不平等的良方——它反而成了不平等的借口。
在这个过程中，它贬低了工人阶级的尊严和贡献，让许多人感到精英阶层剥削和轻视他们。
其结果是愤怒和沮丧交织在一起，助长了民粹主义抗议和极端两极分化。这导致人们对政府和同胞都深感不信任，使得“共同利益”的理念荡然无存。
尽管《精英的暴政》一书以美国政治、常春藤盟校的“搭便车文化”、特朗普的受欢迎程度以及英国脱欧的根本原因为背景，但它对世界各地的民主国家都具有现实意义。本书探讨了一些出人意料且令人不安的问题，并对如何评判和奖励每个人在全球经济中的参与提出了根本性的重新评估。
正如桑德尔总结的那样，“我们需要修复人们想要逃离的现状——任何繁荣的社会都不能仅仅建立在逃离的承诺之上。”
The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good?
From the winner of the 2025 Berggruen Prize
A Times Literary Supplement’s Book of the Year
A New Statesman's Best Book of the Year
A Bloomberg's Best Book of the Year
A Guardian Best Book About Ideas of the Year
The world-renowned philosopher and author of the bestselling Justice explores the central question of our time: What has become of the common good?
These are dangerous times for democracy. We live in an age of winners and losers, where the odds are stacked in favor of the already fortunate. Stalled social mobility and entrenched inequality give the lie to the American credo that "you can make it if you try". The consequence is a brew of anger and frustration that has fueled populist protest and extreme polarization, and led to deep distrust of both government and our fellow citizens--leaving us morally unprepared to face the profound challenges of our time.
World-renowned philosopher Michael J. Sandel argues that to overcome the crises that are upending our world, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalization and rising inequality. Sandel shows the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgement it imposes on those left behind, and traces the dire consequences across a wide swath of American life. He offers an alternative way of thinking about success--more attentive to the role of luck in human affairs, more conducive to an ethic of humility and solidarity, and more affirming of the dignity of work. The Tyranny of Merit points us toward a hopeful vision of a new politics of the common good.
The Tyranny Of Merit: Can We Find The Common Good?
Review by Lise-Marie Keyser
https://ziwani.com/book-review/the-tyranny-of-merit-can-we-find-the-common-good
In his groundbreaking work The Tyranny of Merit, Michael J. Sandel does not dispute the value of merit itself, but he scathingly exposes the hollowness and oppression of a society built primarily on meritocracy. He unmasks how ‘merit’ turns tyrannical when individuals in such a society not only fail to achieve it, but also when they do.
He agrees that merit matters. It signifies competence and quality, promotes fairness that is based on achievement, and enables efficiency. It rewards those who work hard, who take initiative and carry responsibility. It provides a sense of freedom and control, as in the belief that ‘I’m not the victim of circumstance, I can rise as far as my efforts and talents will take me’.
But (and this is a big but!) there is an immense difference between holding people responsible for their actions, and holding them responsible for ‘their lot in life’.
The modern mantra of ‘I deserve my success’ has produced an arrogance and extravagance among the elites, while it has demoralised working-class people. Sandel comments that amidst unrestrained inequality, the opportunities and support provided by inherited privilege are the real keys to success – more so than individual effort. He argues that even the idea of our talents determining our destiny is flawed – we are lucky when we are born with a talent our society values highly, instead of having a talent no-one cares about.
So how does the tyranny of merit affect the winners? There is no denying that the relentless pressure to achieve has caused widespread mental health issues and fragile self-worth among young people. And because the stakes are so high, parenting has become an anxious “form of product development”. Education itself has become less about actual learning, than about “packaging oneself with the right credentials”. (A Harvard professor since 1981, Sandel has witnessed this change first-hand.)
For the losers, the effect has been even more destructive. The legendary ‘level playing-field of equal opportunity’ remains an illusion. Blue- and white-collar workers have, in essence, been given a double burden – either ‘better’ yourself by ‘rising’ against all the odds, or carry the burden of your own failure.
According to Sandel, we have to acknowledge that meritocracy is not (as is often argued and widely accepted) a remedy for inequality – it has become a justification for it.
In the process it has devalued the dignity and contribution of the working-class, leaving many people feeling that the elites exploit and look down on them. The consequence is a brew of anger and frustration that has fuelled populist protest and extreme polarisation. It has led to deep distrust of both government and our fellow citizens – making the shared feeling of ‘the common good’ impossible.
Set within the context of American politics, Ivy League ‘comping culture’, the popularity of Trump and the underlying reasons for Brexit, The Tyranny Of Merit is nevertheless relevant to democracies everywhere. It grapples with unexpected and uncomfortable questions, and offers a radical re-evaluation of how everyone’s participation in the global economy should be judged and rewarded.
As Sandel concludes, “We need to repair the conditions people want to flee – no flourishing society can be premised only on the promise of escape.”
