1. Michael Sandel – The Tyranny of Merit

Sandel critiques meritocracy by emphasizing how success in a market-driven system is often mistaken for moral worth. He argues that conflating talent or credentials with desert erases structural inequalities and undermines solidarity.

2. Elizabeth Anderson – What is the Point of Equality?

Anderson explores how equality should aim at dismantling oppressive social relationships rather than simply distributing resources. Her work distinguishes between fairness and competence-based hierarchies.

3. Iris Marion Young – Justice and the Politics of Difference

Young emphasizes how structural injustice can prevent people from developing the capacities that are later used to judge them as "unworthy." She’s key in showing how moral desert and institutional competence often pull apart.

4. Pierre Bourdieu – Distinction, The State Nobility

Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital shows how what gets counted as “merit” is deeply shaped by class and social reproduction. The illusio of meritocracy masks inherited advantage as earned skill.

5. Amartya Sen – Development as Freedom

Sen emphasizes capabilities over outcomes and raises questions about how people come to have the freedom to exercise competence — distinguishing between actual potential and institutional opportunity.

6. Judith Shklar – The Liberalism of Fear

While not directly about merit, Shklar's work can be drawn on to underscore the moral stakes in how societies grant or deny recognition, which plays into judgments of desert.