In 1985 Krauze and Slomczynski advanced a simple model of meritocratic allocation in order to provide an empirical assessment of "how far to meritocracy?". Incorporating the principle according to which more educated persons do not have lower income than less educated ones, we formulated three testable hypotheses involving status mobility within educational groups, status determination by education, and status inequality among educational groups. We conclude that there is a considerable variation in the degree to which a meritocracy is achieved in various countries.
In a second project Sheri L. Kunovich and Kazimierz M. Slomczynski analyze to what extent the variation in the degree to which meritocracy is achieved across countries influences people' support for such a system. Both modernization and post-industrial theories suggest that persons living in countries with a high degree of societal meritocracy are expected to hold stronger meritocratic beliefs than persons living in countries with low degree of societal meritocracy. Results of multi-level regression analysis of the 1992 ISSP data indicate that the effect of societal meritocracy on meritocratic attitudes appears substantial.
In a third project Kazimierz M. Slomczynski and Sheri L. Kunovich consider
policy relevant questions concerning labor market mechanisms in post-communist
Poland and the United States. Would women gain or loss in these societies
if the relationship between education and earnings were stronger than it is
as the present time? In other words, what would happen in terms of
the income sex ratio if Poland or the United States became more meritocratic?
Tadeusz K. Krauze and Kazimierz M. Slomczynski. 1985. "How far to Meritocracy? Empirical Tests of a Controversial Thesis." Social Forces, Vol. 63, No. 3: 623-642.
Slomczynski, Kazimierz M. 1989. “Effects of Status-Inconsistency
on the Intellective Process: The United States, Japan, and Poland.”
Pp. 148-166 in Cross-National Research in Sociology, edited by Melvin
L. Kohn. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Further development of all three projects.
Sheri L. Kunovich and Kazimierz M. Slomczynski. "Meritocratic Allocation and Meritocratic Attitudes: A Cross-National Inquiry."
Kazimierz M. Slomczynski and Sheri L. Kunovich. "Would women win
or lose under a strict meritocracy? A comparison of income distribution
in Poland and the United States."