Working translation. This page is an English translation of the French page at meriquite.com/lexique/. It has not been adopted in English. In the event of any divergence of meaning, the French text prevails. The only English text adopted by the Conférence Nationale d'Expression Citoyenne is the founding doctrinal text, at Debt and Merit.
Lexicon
Each concept is given in its reference formulation, situated within the architecture of the doctrine, and then supported by the passages of the text that ground it.
Mériquité
“Doctrine according to which none is born free of debt, for each person receives before producing, and must contribute, according to their capacities, to preserving, improving and handing down the common inheritance; this debt cannot be paid off and it never expires: it is handed down improved. In return, the community owes each person a criterion that is written, public and verifiable for access to public goods. From this handing down and from merit protected there results a way of living: tranquillity.”
Wording settled by presidential arbitration of 8 August 2026. It is reproduced verbatim and is not reformulated.
“We owe everything unto them that came before us. Unto them that are yet unborn, we owe that which is better.”
Debt and Merit, “The sentence”
The official definition, its provenance and the reference formulations
Mériquitaire
A person who subscribes to the principles of Mériquité; or, in normative use, that which conforms to its doctrinal core. Un mériquitaire, une mériquitaire, des mériquitaires. Adopted by presidential decision of 25 August 2026.
The full entry for the word, its agreement and the forms to be avoided
Dette (debt)
None is born free of debt: each generation receives a material, institutional, cultural and moral inheritance.
The first of the two pillars. Without it, merit becomes the illusion of the person who would have made themselves alone.
“Each of us inherits a capital we did not create: a language we did not invent; a peace we did not win; a school we did not build; land cleared by the dead whom we never knew.”
Debt and Merit, ch. III
“It cannot be paid off and it never expires. No tax can discharge it; we are never free of it. It is handed down; and it shall be handed down improved.”
Debt and Merit, ch. III
Mérite (merit)
The community must protect effort and guarantee criteria that are public, written and verifiable.
The second pillar. It is what the community owes in return for the debt it claims.
“Merit is no favour to be bestowed; it is a right to be defended.”
Debt and Merit, ch. IV
“Corruption is not a vice to be deplored; it is theft. It takes from the person who has worked and gives to the person who has paid.”
Debt and Merit, ch. IV
Générations (generations)
Any policy that enriches the present by impoverishing those who come after is illegitimate.
The criterion of legitimacy for every public decision.
“Any policy that enriches the present generation by impoverishing the next is illegitimate, whatsoever its immediate benefit.”
Debt and Merit, ch. III
“I would rather my generation suffered so that tomorrow might be better for our children. But no future can justify reducing those now living below the threshold of dignity.”
Debt and Merit, ch. III
Équité (equity)
Formal equality is not enough if starting capabilities are very unequal.
The point where the two pillars meet. Without it, merit no longer rewards effort but the starting point.
“God giveth unto each person two arms. When He giveth but one, society must provide the other.”
Debt and Merit, ch. V
“Equal dignity at birth; equitable means whereby that dignity may be made effectual.”
Debt and Merit, ch. V
Justice
Neither impunity nor vengeance; the polity judges, and the victim keeps the choice of forgiveness.
The question the text announces as the most difficult, and which it refuses to evade.
“None is above the law; neither is any beneath its protection.”
Debt and Merit, ch. VIII
“No impunity: forgiveness granted without justice is an insult to victims. No vengeance: vengeance is the victim striking back; justice is the polity judging in the victim's stead.”
Debt and Merit, ch. VIII
Nation
Unity does not impose uniformity; identity does not decide access to public goods.
The doctrinal answer to division—rejected, without being replaced by the erasure of identities.
“The Nation is not an administrative organisation. It is a community of destiny.”
Debt and Merit, ch. VI
“Language, yes. Identity as a criterion, never. We may celebrate our ethnic community. We must never use it to allocate offices, public contracts, scholarships or land.”
Debt and Merit, ch. VI
État (the State)
To protect. To ensure tranquillity. To develop.
The three ends to which every particular function of the State must be ordered.
“We did not say ‘to ensure security’. We said ‘to ensure tranquillity’. Security may leave a person under surveillance. Tranquillity leaves a person free.”
Debt and Merit, ch. VII
“It does not destroy freedoms. It does not imprison people for their opinions. It does not enter people's homes arbitrarily. It does not dispossess. It does not tax without end.”
Debt and Merit, ch. VII
Pouvoir (power)
Power is a trust and a service, held under rules that outlive the persons who hold them.
The chapter that refuses to rest the doctrine upon the virtue of its own author.
“The office they hold does not belong to them. It has been entrusted to them, temporarily, by a people who expect results, not privileges.”
Debt and Merit, ch. X
“Justice rests upon no man's virtue, even if he is a king. A people who entrust their fate solely to the character of their ruler will have to begin all over again with the next.”
Debt and Merit, ch. X