It stands to reason any ruling class allowed to define the mechanism of handing over power to the next generation will do it via inheritance, hardly any different than primogeniture.<p>It&#x27;s contrary to Lockean political legitimacy which requires the consent of the governed. And it&#x27;s also contrary to Paine&#x27;s Rights of Man which expressly argues against aristocracy and hereditary government, which self-evidently a meritocracy would create because there&#x27;s nothing to prevent it and every incentive to pass down such power only to ones progeny as the next generation of ruling class.