1 INTRODUCTION

In various societies debates have arisen on the lack of political diversity among academics in universities.1 Critics have argued that one‐sided political views in the university, particularly leaning to left‐wing or liberal orientations, may prevent the teaching of a diverse set of opinions and worldviews, and may constrain academics who have unconventional views to express themselves and follow their own research interests. Recent scholarship suggests that academic social psychologists became increasingly liberal (Duarte et al., 2015), and conservatives find it less attractive to opt for an academic career (Gross & Fosse, 2012). But criticism does not only come from the political right: academic freedom has also been criticized by critical theorists as serving the interest of social elites (Williams, 2016). A non‐diverse university may be threatening to academic freedom when researchers do not feel free to investigate following their own interest, while academic freedom is essential for scientific progress (Williams, 2016).

While evidence exists that academics, on average, have more left‐leaning orientations than the general population (Gross & Fosse, 2012; Klein, Stern, & Western, 2005; Ladd & Lipset, 1975), the presumed homogeneity in political orientations among professors has not yet been properly investigated. Moreover, academics have not been compared to the most evident comparison group of (other) professionals, which is unfortunate because the social class of professionals is known to be more egalitarian and liberal than the social class of managers—a group of similar occupational standing in the standard sociological social class literature (Brint, 1984; Güveli, Need, & De Graaf, 2007; Kalmijn & Kraaykamp, 2007; Van de Werfhorst & De Graaf, 2004).

It is important to compare professors to other professionals, both in their average political orientation and within‐group diversity in orientations, because universities are thought to be organizations hostile to conservative or right‐wing scholars. If universities are left‐wing bastions where people with divergent (non‐liberal) orientations would feel unwelcome, we would not only expect that professors are more left‐leaning than other professionals (with similar levels and fields of education), but also that there is a comparatively small dispersion around that more left‐wing average orientation, leaving little room for diversity. If the selection process into the professoriate were biased against scholars with divergent opinions, a homogenizing process would have taken place beyond what one may expect from the self‐selection into specific fields of study and the potential causal effect of field of study on political orientations. I consider this homogeneity‐inducing process a central claim of the thought that universities are left‐wing bastions intolerant to a diverse set of opinions. Previous scholarship has not been concerned with within‐group homogeneity among professors and comparison groups, although low variability of values within a profession have been defended as resulting from scientific wisdom rather than bias (Fuller & Geide‐Stevenson, 2014).

This paper studies the left‐wing bastion hypothesis by examining political orientations of people in various occupational groups within the classes of professionals and managers, both in terms of the group averages and within‐group homogeneity. Inspired by contemporary class theories and Bourdieusian field theory, I argue that occupational groups and educational background structure political orientations, causally and through processes of selection. This is likely not only the case for professors, but also for other occupational groups. Occupations are examined that are typically seen as rich in cultural capital (professors, artists), rich in economic capital (e.g., CEOs of large private enterprises), and occupations in which there is no clear dominance of one type of capital over the other (engineers).

Using large‐scale representative survey data of the European Social Survey I compare the political orientation of professors with that of other professionals, managers, and other groups of workers in Europe. Using four indicators of political orientation, I cover both the economic and cultural dimensions of political cleavages (Van der Brug & Van Spanje, 2009). While the general question on self‐placement is informative about general political tendencies, the underlying cultural and economic dimensions of political orientation can reveal more specifically on which issues professors potentially deviate from other occupational groups.