The Lacunae of neoliberal higher educational reform: ethnicity and the problems of horizontal inequality and merit

One of the core ideas that animate neo-liberal globalization is the promise that with increased integration there will be a concomitant decline in the power of the nation state and a decline and dissipation of issues such as ethnic hatred, nationalist extremism which can be overcome by the spread of enlightened self interest. Competition based on individual merit and the prevalence of markets over politics signals a new neo-liberal order. According to its supporters neo-liberal globalization heralds a new era of cosmopolitanism individualism, choice and the breakdown of barriers to the peoples of the world. Freedom, free markets, open competition, democracy and development are said to follow in the wake of neoliberal globalization. The powerful discourse of competition and economic development provides neo-liberal globalization with a critical and central driver