[lbo-talk] Larry Summers on the academic hiearchy

[Michael Hoover]

>>> dhenwood at panix.com 02/17/06 10:54 AM >>>
[Someone just posted this quote from Harvard president and 
uber-smart-boy economist Larry Summers to the feminist econ list. 
It's from a Feb 16 article in the Boston Globe.]
"'President Summers asked me, didn't I agree that, in general, 
economists are smarter than political scientists, and political 
scientists are smarter than sociologists?' [former Dean] Ellison 
said. 'To which I laughed nervously and didn't reply.'"
<<<<<>>>>>

can't really speak to smartness of above, however, i do think that 
rise of so-called 'formal' political theory (whether called 'rational
choice'/'public choice'/'social choice') drawing upon example of 
economic theory in building up models based on procedural rules, 
usually about 'rationally' self-interested behavior of individuals 
involved has - with a few exceptions - constituted negative turn in
poli sci...   mh