一套照能力分配權力的制度
這一支就是梯子本身：規則怎麼訂、位置怎麼發。
noun · C1
A society or organization in which the people with the most ability get the top positions and the most power, instead of getting them through family, money, or who they know.
菁英制度；才德制
核心畫面
Picture a ladder standing in the middle of a room, with no rope tied to it and no name on any rung. Whoever can climb it goes up; the family you come from, the money in your pocket and the people you know are all left at the bottom. That is the arrangement the word names. Everything else the word does grows out of that one picture — including the sharp question that follows it around: the ladder may be open, but people arrive at it carrying very different loads.
可以想成房間中間立著一把梯子。梯子上沒有綁繩子，每一階也沒有刻名字。誰爬得上去誰就上去。家世、錢、關係，全部留在梯子…更多收起
可以想成房間中間立著一把梯子。梯子上沒有綁繩子，每一階也沒有刻名字。誰爬得上去誰就上去。家世、錢、關係，全部留在梯子底下。這個字講的就是這個安排。它其他的用法都從這個畫面長出來，連跟著它跑的那個尖銳問題也是：梯子也許對所有人開放，但每個人走到梯子前時，身上背的東西差很多。From the word’s history
The packet traces the word to merit + -o- + -cracy, the -cracy ending that also sits in democracy and aristocracy and that names who rules. It records the coinage: Alan Fox, a British sociologist, in Socialist Commentary in 1956, used as a derisive term. So the mocking edge many writers still give the word is not something modern critics added; it was there in the first use.
證據顯示這個字是 merit 加 -o- 再加 -cracy 組成的，-cracy 就是 democracy、aristocracy 裡那個表示「由誰統治」的字尾。證據也記下它的來歷：英國社會學家 Alan Fox 一九五六年在 Socialist Commentary 上造出來，而且是當成嘲諷的說法在用。所以今天很多文章用它時帶著的那點刺，並不是後人加上去的，第一次出現時就在了。
Wiktionary entry for meritocracy, kaikki extract supplied in the evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1050666921:19220); the packet's etymology text is truncated at 500 characters, so only the Alan Fox coinage is claimed here
Two branches
制度裡站在上面的那群人
鏡頭從梯子移到爬上去的人身上。英文常常用制度的名字去叫制度裡的人，這一支就是那個動作。
noun · C2
The people who hold the power in a meritocracy — the group who reached the top through ability and are now in charge.
菁英階層（掌權的那群人）