Why Do Sociologists Lean Left — Really Left?

23 July 2006 at 1:28 pm Peter G. Klein

| Peter Klein |

It’s no secret that academic intellectuals tend to favor socialism and interventionism over the free market, agnosticism and warm-and-fuzzy universalism over orthodox Christianity, cultural relativism over tradition and authority, and so on. Indeed, studies of US professors’ political affiliations consistently find a strong leftward bias. Hayek ascribed the hostility of the intellectual classes toward capitalism to selection bias. Schumpeter noted the intellectual’s “absence of direct responsibility for practical affairs,” emphasizing “the intellectual’s situation as an onlooker — in most cases, also an outsider — [and] the fact that his main chance of asserting himself lies in his actual or potential nuisance value” (Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 3rd ed., p. 147).

Now comes a new study of academics’ political affiliations using voter-registration records for tenure-track faculty at 11 California universities. The study, by Christopher F. Cardiff and Daniel B. Klein, finds an average Democrat:Republican ratio of 5:1, ranging from 9:1 at Berkeley to 1:1 at Pepperdine. The humanities average 10:1, while business schools are at only 1.3:1. (Needless to say, even at the heartless, dog-eat-dog, sycophant-of-the-bourgeoisie business schools the ratio doesn’t dip below 1:1.)

Here’s the most interesting finding. What department has the highest average D:R ratio? You guessed it: sociology, at 44:1. Perhaps some of our readers of the sociological persuasion could tell us why, and what this means.

I find the study interesting, but am not sure that party affiliation tells us much about “left” and “right,” at least in terms of economic policy. Today’s Republicans, after all, tend to favor centralized power, nation-building, vast increases in government spending, trade protectionism, and subsidies. The Democrats have become, in relative terms, the party of fiscal restraint and decentralization. (Recall that in the 19th century, the Republicans were for protectionism and corporate welfare while the Democrats were the party of laissez-faire.)

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Entry filed under: - Klein -, Classical Liberalism, Cultural Conservatism.