The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?

Michael Sandel is an American political philosopher who teaches at Harvard University, having taken up a position there in 1981. He currently holds the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory chair at Harvard Law School. In 2002, he was elected to a position on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a regular fellow, and previously served on the President’s Council on Bioethics during the Bush administration. Educated at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar—studying and writing under the famed Charles Taylor—Sandel has been writing and publishing since 1982, an output that contains several best-selling books alongside his normal academic teaching and writing.

Sandel is one of the few American academics who have transcended their niche academic position in order to speak, write, and exercise influence within the wider public sphere. His works have been translated into dozens of languages, gaining him a wide international following—including India, the United Kingdom, China, and Japan—and he has authored and recorded various online video courses that have reached millions of people.

Sandel’s publishing projects are a fitting complement to his academic career as a philosopher and professor of political theory, speaking to a wide