I also think that the question about the direction of causality is not very productive as the relationship seems recursive. Specifically, different academic disciplines have different public images or "identities," which have different appeals to different types of individuals. Right leaning types flock to academic disciplines that have a "right wing" identity (such as law or economics) while left leaning individuals flock to disciplines with a "left wing identity" (e.g. sociology or anthropology.)
Looking at this form a different angle - politics, including politics in the academia, act as a magnifying mirror for how individuals want to be perceived by themselves and others. Those who want to be seen as cocky macho types tend to embrace conservative politics, because this is the public image (or "master frame" as the US sociologist Erving Goffman would call it) typically projected by conservative politics. Likewise, those who want to be seen as compassionate as thoughtful tend to lean toward liberal politics, again because of its public image.
Most people have very little understanding of political philosophy, and even less so of the relationship between different political philosophies and the organization of modern political and economic institutions. All they care is that they are perceived by other. in a favorable way. For some that favorable perceptions entails toughness, cockiness, machismo, and ruthlessness toward others. For other that favorable perception entails compassion, thoughtfulness, tolerance and open-mindedness.
These two different types will thus be projecting their favorable self-images using different cultural props - style of dress, forms of talk, manners, consumption patterns (guns and trucks vs. books and travel) and political allegiances. They support political parties not to pursue their economic self interest, but to build their own self-respect and dignity and to project what they consider a favorable public image to others.
Homo academicus is no exception. The choice of academic discipline seem to be affected mainly by the appeal of the public image of that discipline to a particular individual.
Wojtek
On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 2:32 AM, Joseph Catron <jncatron at gmail.com> wrote:
> "Several academic studies have found that there is a link between education
> levels and civic behavior. But a new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of
> New York <http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr450.pdf> has
> concluded that how much economics people study can influence their
> political
> activity and how they spend their spare time."
>
> http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/does-studying-economics-make-you-more-republican
>
> --
> "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen
> lytlað."
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>