Mark Ariba

About

I am a political theorist whose research examines how practices of meritocracy shape and sustain the political legitimacy of liberal democratic states. My work sits at the intersection of liberalism, democratic theory, and public administration, drawing together historical and normative analysis to understand how states justify authority through appeals to merit, fairness, and deservingness.

I am currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and a Junior Fellow at Massey College.

My dissertation, How Should a Liberal State Be? Meritocracy and the Production of Political Legitimacy, investigates the civil service and education systems in the United States and the United Kingdom from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. Focusing on landmark reforms such as the Northcote–Trevelyan and Pendleton Acts, my work traces how the ideal of merit came to underpin modern notions of fairness, obligation, and state legitimacy.

My broader research explores the moral foundations of administrative practices and the historical development of liberalism as a governing project.

I am a Nigerian-born Canadian based in Toronto, where I continue to think about how states produce political legitimacy and moral obligations.