The Liberal Skew in Higher Education

The latest posting on the Becker-Posner blog is by Posner on The Liberal Skew in Higher Education. Comments by Becker are under the title, Events, Field, and the Liberal Skew in Higher Education. Posner begins by noting,

A recent paper by two sociology professors contains a useful history of scholarship on the issue and, more important, reports the results of the most careful survey yet conducted of the ideology of American academics. See Neal Gross and Solon Simmons, "The Social and Political Views of American Professors," Sept. 24, 2007, available at http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~ngross/lounsbery_9-25.pdf (visited Dec. 29. 2007)

Posner then states the findings of the survey as

In the sample as a whole, 44 percent of professors are liberal, 46 percent moderate or centrist, and only 9 percent conservative. (These are self-descriptions.) The corresponding figures for the American population as a whole, according to public opinion polls, are 18 percent, 49 percent, and 33 percent, suggesting that professors are on average more than twice as liberal, and only half as conservative, as the average American.

Interestingly "[t]he Gross-Simmons study notes that the liberal skew is not limited to the United States, but is found in Canada, Britain, and much of Continental Europe, as well." I should point out that liberal in all of this is in the American sense of the word.

Posner then goes on to deal with the question, What is the explanation for the results?

Becker's comments start "by concentrating on the effects on academic political attitudes of events in the world, and of their fields of specialization." He then considers "whether college teachers have long-lasting influences on the views of their students".

These articles are an interesting read and they do raise the question, How different is New Zealand in this regard? My guess would be, not very.