Most Economists Welcome Ideological Openness

In: The independent review: journal of political economy, Volume 17, Issue 2, p. 227-231

Abstract

With Adam Smith, political economy emerged as part of moral philosophy. From the early 1800s, however, writers have considered whether economics as a science can be demarcated from morals and politics. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there were strong movements toward demarcation and separation of economics from moral, cultural, and political judgment. Someone who moves in the world of academic economics now is likely to detect something of an official orthodoxy that economic science should be "positive" and not "normative." In this view, economists should be factual, analytical, and "objective," and they should keep their value judgments out of the research. In March 2010, the authors conducted a major survey of economics professors in the US. They asked the respondents whether, when reading or listening to an economist, they welcomed his disclosure of his ideological proclivities. They anticipated that most economists would say they do not like it. Adapted from the source document.