>There are a couple of other factors that also explain the absence of jobs
>for
>radicals.
>
>First of all, only a few graduate programs offer anything for radicals.
>Right
>off the top, these graduates are regarded as second-class economists,
>because
>they do not concentrate on the technical skills, but devote some time to
>learn
>about the real world.
>
>Even more, elite schools hire other elite schools. But these schools
>discourage radicals. Winning the support of a famous economist is very
>important in getting getting a job and highly ranked university. But very
>few
>famous economists are supported of radicals. During the '60s, some famous
>economists helped to promote the careers of some of the radicals at
>Harvard.
>Nothing like that has happened since that I can think of.
>
>Also, elite schools recognize works publish in elite journals. These
>journals,
>with the exception of the Journal of Economic Perspectives do not publish
>radicals articles. What most economists know about Marx is that he has
>nothing
>worthwhile to say about anything. He favors gulags and the butchering of
>babies.
>
>Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> >
> > It's a combination of things, I think. Progressive students often run
> > away screaming from economics, because it is such a stultifying
> > field. Those who survive to the PhD level often shun academic jobs
> > for unions and think tanks, because to thrive as an economist it
> > helps to be isolated and irrelevant. And colleges and universities
> > won't hire radical economists, either. Bhagwati blamed the mediocrity
> > of most leftie candidates for this dearth (along with the corporate
> > bias explanation we quoted in the article).
> >
> > Maybe some of the employed, or hope-to-be-employed, radical
> > economists on the list could enlighten.
> >
> > Doug
>
A dearth of radicals is also a reality in political science departments, and increasingly, in other social science disciplines and even in the humanities. This is the case not only in the US (where perhaps it is most pronounced) but in the Anglophone industrialized world generally (I'm familiar with Canada, Britain and Australia). Most of the above explanations for the scarcity of radical economists in academe apply to poli sci.
Cheers, Joseph
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