Fragile Legitimacy: Exclusive Boarding Schools Between the Meritocratic Norm and Their Clientele’s Desire for a Competitive Advantage

Abstract Exclusive boarding schools in social environments where the meritocratic norm is prevalent are faced with a tension between parents’ desire to give their children a head start in the competition for educational qualifications, social prestige and jobs on the one hand and the powerful social norm of advancement by merit under conditions of “equal opportunity” on the other. This article looks at how two exclusive boarding schools, Eton College in England and Schule Schloss Salem in Germany, deal with this double challenge in presenting themselves to their environment, attempting to preserve social legitimacy while staying attractive to their clientele. The article shows that the ways in which the schools deal with these conflicting demands depends strongly on the differing systems contexts they find themselves in.