Political views of academics

[Thunderbird is the word]

In academia it seems to me that fields like Socialogy are virtually 100% left-leaning. Psychology also, though psychiatrists might be slightly more conservative, philosophy is probably left-leaning as well. I think that your most likely to find conservatives in History and Economics departments.

[Crumpets]

I'm in international relations, and there seems to be a pretty clear divide between neo-liberals, realists, and obviously neo-cons voting Republican and all others voting Democratic. That being said, I think most don't have a strong "Party X is the correct party in terms of international relations and the other is wrong and will lead to WWIII" mentality. As is the case for most fields, they just want to have their side heard and see both parties as just another reality of our political system to be dealt with.

[RFayette]

I agree with you, especially Economic seems to be dominated by conservatives now. History is probably closwer to 50-50, which a rightward lean.

I think even econ leans Dem in academia.

[Mr. Illini]

Economics is a generally Democratic department, but not as much so as the social sciences that you named.

The most conservative department is Business, which is about 50/50 due to the persistent Dem lean among academics.

I've read survey data in the past to back this up, but I can't seem to find it.

I remember Political Science and Philosophy being something like 95/5 liberal, English was right up there in the 90s, History was in the 80s, Economics was like 75/25 liberal, Engineering around 70/30 liberal,  and then Business was something like 53-47 liberal.

Wish I could find the survey report on this.

[Rockefeller GOP]

I'd be interested to see the numbers on graduates (by major).

[RFayette]

I'd be interested to see the numbers on graduates (by major).

Business grads lean GOP I believe.  I think people with a BA in econ also trend conservative.

[King of Kensington]

While academia is very much "left-liberal/progressive", the big Democratic vote is also due to the GOP's embrace of the anti-science, anti-intellectual crowd.  I imagine a lot of say, economics and business professors that lean more center-right would probably vote Tory in the UK but Democrat by default in the US.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Should be noted that in the UK private universities are pretty much unheard of, so academics of all stripes favour the left for reasons of self-preservation. They are also very dependent on EU funding and £££ from foreign students, so they don't fall into the Eurosceptic parties with enthusiasm.

Anyway here's some British stats :

https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/almost-half-of-sector-to-back-labour-the-election-poll-suggests/2019944.article

This article suggests only Business and Law attract a significant Tory vote (19%), and even then they are level to the Greens - and well behind Labour.

Other odd stuff:

- maths and hard sciences aren't particularly enthused with Labour, but have a significant contingent (15%) in favour of Lib Dems even in 2015. Those wacky SCientists! Relatively low amount of Greens as well - a consequence of nuclear/GM/animal testing shenanigans maybe?
- I would have assumed the Engineers would have been somewhat right-leaning compared with the rest, but no, they have very similar Green and Labour numbers to the Social Sciences.
- most sectors are very lefty, but those associated with the public sector are more likely to be solidly Labour (Medicine and Education both check in at around 50% Labour); than the Arts and Humanities who experiment with the less "statist" Greens.
- the significant wedge of Tory Health people isn't analysed but I'm willing to bet they're linked with dentistry and plastic surgery.
- lol at the impressive 0% of Tory creative arts.
- nobody is attracted very much to the right-wing populists of UKIP to the extent they are unceremoniously shoved into "other".

[Bigby]

The History Department where I go to university at is diverse overall, but has a few openly Republican and conservative students and professors. Then again, I'm in southern Georgia, so I think that may be too anecdotal.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

From a subjective standpoint:
-The only econ class I've taken was taught by a self-identified Republican who was a former higher-up in one of the Big 3--I wanna say Chrysler
-While one might assume that criminal justice professors, especially ex-cops, might have a relative right lean, my adviser is still a Democrat (I assume, based on references he's made). Probably not an incredibly liberal one, but he is black, like many of the ex-cops at the school, and the academic side of criminal justice studies produces--to an extent--a bias against "get tough" policies.

The rest are pretty obvious.

Some Democratic criminal justice types are themselves oriented towards "tough on crime" type policies anyway. Mark Kleimen is a good pat example of that.

[/]

All academics are liberal.

It's a fact.

[TJ in Oregon]

In the engineering world, academia certainly leans to the left, decisively but not overwhelmingly (somewhere between 60-40 and 70-30 I'd guess). Most of the conservative engineers tend to go into industry, and since there are far, far more engineers in industry than academia, those with any engineering degree are overall a Republican demographic.

The most liberal field is probably gender studies, which I suspect votes about 100-0.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

In the engineering world, academia certainly leans to the left, decisively but not overwhelmingly (somewhere between 60-40 and 70-30 I'd guess). Most of the conservative engineers tend to go into industry, and since there are far, far more engineers in industry than academia, those with any engineering degree are overall a Republican demographic.

The most liberal field is probably gender studies, which I suspect votes about 100-0.

I mean, what would be the point, otherwise? Though such would be very amusing.

[Thunderbird is the word]

In the engineering world, academia certainly leans to the left, decisively but not overwhelmingly (somewhere between 60-40 and 70-30 I'd guess). Most of the conservative engineers tend to go into industry, and since there are far, far more engineers in industry than academia, those with any engineering degree are overall a Republican demographic.

The most liberal field is probably gender studies, which I suspect votes about 100-0.

I mean, what would be the point, otherwise? Though such would be very amusing.

It would be funny to see a right-wing gender studies professor, maybe some MRA that tried to subvert the field to their own ends.

[Bigby]

In the engineering world, academia certainly leans to the left, decisively but not overwhelmingly (somewhere between 60-40 and 70-30 I'd guess). Most of the conservative engineers tend to go into industry, and since there are far, far more engineers in industry than academia, those with any engineering degree are overall a Republican demographic.

The most liberal field is probably gender studies, which I suspect votes about 100-0.

I think that might be the main reason why academia leans to the left. Left-wingers tend to stay in after graduating while more conservatives and Republicans go into an industry, whether it is in their field of study or not.

[Del Tachi]

I'm an agricultural economics major, all of my instructors are Republicans.

Ag is probably one of the few academic disciplines that is truly rightward-leaning. 

[RFayette]

I'm an agricultural economics major, all of my instructors are Republicans.

Out of curiosity, do they tend to vote GOP because of the party's general friendliness toward agriculture, or more based on social issues/military/"rural culture" generically? 

[RFayette]

In the engineering world, academia certainly leans to the left, decisively but not overwhelmingly (somewhere between 60-40 and 70-30 I'd guess). Most of the conservative engineers tend to go into industry, and since there are far, far more engineers in industry than academia, those with any engineering degree are overall a Republican demographic.

The most liberal field is probably gender studies, which I suspect votes about 100-0.

I think that might be the main reason why academia leans to the left. Left-wingers tend to stay in after graduating while more conservatives and Republicans go into an industry, whether it is in their field of study or not.

This is true.  Personality-wise, liberals on average are more likely to see education as an end in and of itself, whereas conservatives tend to see education as a means toward getting a job and securing a livelihood.  For conservatives that are more "intellectual" (I hate this term because of how loaded it's become), many are more likely to gravitate toward think tanks where they'd encounter less ideological opposition. 

[TJ in Oregon]

In the engineering world, academia certainly leans to the left, decisively but not overwhelmingly (somewhere between 60-40 and 70-30 I'd guess). Most of the conservative engineers tend to go into industry, and since there are far, far more engineers in industry than academia, those with any engineering degree are overall a Republican demographic.

The most liberal field is probably gender studies, which I suspect votes about 100-0.

I think that might be the main reason why academia leans to the left. Left-wingers tend to stay in after graduating while more conservatives and Republicans go into an industry, whether it is in their field of study or not.

This is true.  Personality-wise, liberals on average are more likely to see education as an end in and of itself, whereas conservatives tend to see education as a means toward getting a job and securing a livelihood.  For conservatives that are more "intellectual" (I hate this term because of how loaded it's become), many are more likely to gravitate toward think tanks where they'd encounter less ideological opposition. 

This is one of those things that's clearly true but very odd about American politics/society if you stop to think about it. On one hand, you have the stereotype of the academic sitting in his ivory tower thinking about some arcane abstract theory with very limited relationship to the common man outside on the ground vs. the practical but theoretically illiterate private sector: "I'm going into industry because I want to accomplish something in my life", etc.

But on the other hand, the moment we start to talk about philosophy or ethics the roles are suddenly reversed (stereotypically of course) where you have the more conservative private sector man, permitted to keep his opiate of the masses that tells him something about personal behaviors that are immoral even if he falls short and no one gets hurt. Meanwhile the academic in his ivory tower does not accept such idealism in ethics and instead subscribes to a consequentialist ethic that the common man can handle rather than some "unrealistic expectation of human behavior". Here the academic suddenly becomes practical rather than theoretical.

[RFayette]

In the engineering world, academia certainly leans to the left, decisively but not overwhelmingly (somewhere between 60-40 and 70-30 I'd guess). Most of the conservative engineers tend to go into industry, and since there are far, far more engineers in industry than academia, those with any engineering degree are overall a Republican demographic.

The most liberal field is probably gender studies, which I suspect votes about 100-0.

I think that might be the main reason why academia leans to the left. Left-wingers tend to stay in after graduating while more conservatives and Republicans go into an industry, whether it is in their field of study or not.

This is true.  Personality-wise, liberals on average are more likely to see education as an end in and of itself, whereas conservatives tend to see education as a means toward getting a job and securing a livelihood.  For conservatives that are more "intellectual" (I hate this term because of how loaded it's become), many are more likely to gravitate toward think tanks where they'd encounter less ideological opposition.  

This is one of those things that's clearly true but very odd about American politics/society if you stop to think about it. On one hand, you have the stereotype of the academic sitting in his ivory tower thinking about some arcane abstract theory with very limited relationship to the common man outside on the ground vs. the practical but theoretically illiterate private sector: "I'm going into industry because I want to accomplish something in my life", etc.

But on the other hand, the moment we start to talk about philosophy or ethics the roles are suddenly reversed (stereotypically of course) where you have the more conservative private sector man, permitted to keep his opiate of the masses that tells him something about personal behaviors that are immoral even if he falls short and no one gets hurt. Meanwhile the academic in his ivory tower does not accept such idealism in ethics and instead subscribes to a consequentialist ethic that the common man can handle rather than some "unrealistic expectation of human behavior". Here the academic suddenly becomes practical rather than theoretical.

Indeed.  Academia has been pretty much fully secularized outside of religious institutions since the 1950's/1960's, and perhaps as early as the late 1800's/early 1900's for some of the Ivy League institutions.  American society at-large didn't really fall away from civic Christianity until the early 1990's, and the nation is still far more religious than its academics.  

To me, it seems that ideologies (almost always left-wing, though some libertarians also fit the bill) fill in the role of religion for many left-wing academics.  What astonishes me is how seriously many of them take their ideologies, especially the Marxists (just looking at the reams of literature and long articles with zero practical purpose whatsoever).  I find it amazing how academics hold so strongly to a non-metaphysical ideology (no concept of afterlife, eternal reward/punishment) to an arguably greater extent than most regular folks take their religion.  A classic example is how Peter Singer influences a lot of this class to live on no more than 30K/year, while most churches would have a hard time getting its members to tithe. 

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Why is nursing Republican? Nurses are more monolithicly Labour than teachers over here.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Why is nursing Republican? Nurses are more monolithicly Labour than teachers over here.

Probably because of the influence of the AMA.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Why is nursing Republican? Nurses are more monolithicly Labour than teachers over here.

Probably because of the influence of the AMA.

It's entirely anecdotal, but of all the medical professionals I know, they are very Republican. Unless they're Asian, of course. Ditto with other minorities, but in my experiences medicine has been dominated by whites and Asians, so in the end it balances out in favor of the Republican Party.

As to why? Not entirely sure, but probably a combination of high incomes + age + frustration with the ACA meddling in the healthcare industry (though many agree that there is a serious need for reform, it's more that they're mad about politicians [i.e. lawyers] doing the legislating and "not listening to them")

Again, this is entirely anecdotal.

[RFayette]

Why is nursing Republican? Nurses are more monolithicly Labour than teachers over here.

Probably because of the influence of the AMA.

It's entirely anecdotal, but of all the medical professionals I know, they are very Republican. Unless they're Asian, of course. Ditto with other minorities, but in my experiences medicine has been dominated by whites and Asians, so in the end it balances out in favor of the Republican Party.

As to why? Not entirely sure, but probably a combination of high incomes + age + frustration with the ACA meddling in the healthcare industry (though many agree that there is a serious need for reform, it's more that they're mad about politicians [i.e. lawyers] doing the legislating and "not listening to them")

Again, this is entirely anecdotal.

This is definitely true with doctors.  There are a ton of doctors among my extended family and they all despise the healthcare law and tend to be more conservative in general.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Doctors by and large despise all change done to any medical system anywhere at any time (aside from stuff like "more money!!!"). They opposed the formation of the NHS over here and then abruptly changed their mind and swung the other way after about ten years. Because Tories typically push the strange reforms (agency staffing, increased amount of private-sector drafted middle-management and the insanely complicated NHS reform bill of last parliament) they will go with the party that treats them well (they also dislike Tory anti-immigrant views which would leave the hospitals understaffed . I was mainly confused at the Nurses being GOPhers, because they are typically fairly low paid and vulnerable to being replaced by agency staff and "cost-cutting".