<P> According to the Princeton Encyclopedia on American History: </P> <P> One of the oldest examples of a merit - based civil service system existed in the imperial bureaucracy of China . Tracing back to 200 B.C., the Han Dynasty adopted Confucianism as the basis of its political philosophy and structure, which included the revolutionary idea of replacing nobility of blood with one of virtue and honesty, and thereby calling for administrative appointments to be based solely on merit . This system allowed anyone who passed an examination to become a government officer, a position that would bring wealth and honor to the whole family . In part due to Chinese influence, the first European civil service did not originate in Europe, but rather in India by the British - run East India Company...company managers hired and promoted employees based on competitive examinations in order to prevent corruption and favoritism . </P> <P> Both Plato and Aristotle advocated meritocracy, Plato in his The Republic, arguing that the most wise should rule, and hence the rulers should be philosopher kings . </P> <P> The concept of meritocracy spread from China to British India during the seventeenth century, and then into continental Europe and the United States . With the translation of Confucian texts during the Enlightenment, the concept of a meritocracy reached intellectuals in the West, who saw it as an alternative to the traditional ancient regime of Europe . Voltaire and François Quesnay wrote favourably of the idea, with Voltaire claiming that the Chinese had "perfected moral science" and Quesnay advocating an economic and political system modeled after that of the Chinese . </P>

Who believed that only philosophers should run the government