Service Guarantees Citizenship!
Meritocracy is the form of government where, though nearly as impossible as Anarchy or Communism to achieve, if you're good and exert the effort, you're allowed to participate in decisions. Most of the time you are allowed anyways. Obviously, some will slip through the cracks, and either end up voting through they lucked out and got in though they weren't supposed to, or screwed up and weren't allowed to try again. Hey, no society is perfect, we can all see that.
So, the society of the world as a single Meritocratic government would be pretty hard to imagine. Why? Because mistakes happen and sometimes the wrong people get into high places. History has hundred of examples of people who lie, cheat and steal because it's easier than working hard to prove yourself. Because of this, many people accept the fact that people lie, cheat and steal and do it themselves. This adds to the problem, magnificently, because now, with everyone lying, cheating and stealing, the system is fully integrated into itself. Meritocracy would be hard, because it's all work, until you die, and then no one cares because your death merits nothing to their society except the possibility of person with less merit to take your place.
Meritocracy wouldn't work in our lifestyle because we do have these social bonds that are hard to break, our friends and family who we think get a bit of extra merit because they're nice to us sometimes. It's true, they get merit in our eyes, but they're not nice to everyone. To get meritocracy, you need a system to weed out people who just don't try hard enough to actually be worth supporting so they can try again. This system works well in Basic Training for the army: You try and try, and if you're satisfactory, they begin training you to hone your skills, supporting you to be greater and add to the ability of the entire group.
If you've ever seen Starship Troopers you might know the phrase "Service Guarantees Citizenship!". This says that if you work hard and aren't tossed aside by death or you're own lazy idiocy, you'll probably be allowed into the elite club known as 'Citizens'. This system works because it assumes when you're born, you have not earned any merit at all (which is kinda true, the biggest merit we have when we're born is that we might be cute and cuddly). When you try to earn your merit, you're not going to earn from a reference to your friends and family or your high School Diploma, you get it through proving that you want to better not only yourself, but the entire body politic as well. For the movies, this means grabbing a gun and some shoddy armour and going to kill giant bugs, or flying a few thousand tonnes of steel around space, though other options are available.
If Meritocracy were to become prevalent in the world you need to smash 'A Brave New World' with 'Starship Troopers' together (Social Engineers who think everyone can be lifted up against Veterans who know only those who sacrificed in service truly value personal choice). Then, and only then, will the culture begin to change to see that maybe people aren't more special than other animals, and we can't give ourselves rights we haven't earned. These rights would be things like the Right to Vote, the Right to run for Public Office, the Right to Self-Defence, and the Right to Mobility (around the nation, to live in any city). Meritocracy would require the personal sacrifice in order to prove that you have learnt your place and how much choice costs before you're allowed to vote with people who have done this to change how you allow people who want to do this to get in. Hopefully Starship Troopers wins, because if a bunch of psychologists and social workers beat battle-hardened veterans then that world is doomed!