Registered Democratic professors outnumber Republican ones nearly 12 to 1 in economics, journalism, psychology and law programs at leading U.S. universities, according to new research.
Many departments at top schools have no registered Republicans, and in many cases, Republicans are outnumbered by registered members of third parties.
The analysis, published in the online journal Econ Journal Watch, presents new evidence that elite universities lean to the Left. It also suggests that Democratic partisanship may be increasing at those schools, as the Democrat-to-Republican ratio appears to have risen significantly in recent years and younger faculty are even more Democratic than their older peers.
Authors Mitchell Langbert, Anthony Quain and Daniel Klein compared departmental faculty lists with voter registration rolls to conclude that there are 11.5 registered Democrats for every one Republican among faculty at the top 40 highest-ranked schools they studied.
Of the five departments they analyzed, history was by far the most Democratic. There are more than 33 Democratic professors for every Republican at the top 40 schools. Economics was the least Democratic, with a 4.5 to 1 ratio.
Many top schools had departments entirely dominated by Democrats, in the sense that there were numerous registered Democrats and zero registered Republicans.
For example, Columbia University’s history department has 63 registered Democrats and zero registered Republicans. Stanford’s psychology program has 34 Democratic professors, but no Republicans.
The authors note that the faculty most likely to be Republicans are retired professors, while junior professors and younger professors are more likely to be registered as Democrats.
That datapoint accords with what they see as a trend toward greater Democratic partisanship in elite higher education. In the 1960s, the ratio of Democrats to Republicans was just 2.7 to 1, far lower than the 33 to 1 ratio today, which “signals quite a change,” the authors wrote.
All three authors acknowledged that they have a libertarian viewpoint, and that they view both major parties as “by and large, horrible.”
Nevertheless, their analysis is in line with what other researchers have found, namely that elite academia leans to the left and is becoming more partisan. Heterodox Academy, a group of professors that promotes diversity in academia, reported this year that higher education has shifted to the left since the 1990s.
Nevertheless, there are some schools at which Republicans are not badly outnumbered, according to Langbert, Quain and Klein’s analysis. And at four departments, Republicans outnumber Democrats: Pepperdine’s history, economics and law programs, and Ohio State’s economics departments.
I don’t think universities will last another decade as they’re now constituted. The vast majority of graduates are getting screwed. Unless it’s a discipline that has some good prospect of ROI (Medical, Accounting, Legal, etc.) most other degrees are nearly useless but to suggest some degree of stick-toitiveness. Big deal. So you rack up some 6 figure debt for a piece of paper and a handshake. And note these lefty bullshit professors got their butt buddies in congress to make that debt immune from personal bankruptcy. They’ve turned millions of kids into indentured servants. Stinking bastards. Sooner or later the market will puke this scam up.
The real world needs all the Republicans to actually design, build and maintain real operations with real equipment and real products to support all those Democrats. They are too busy making things happen to be able to teach snowflakes how to emote properly.
Engineering professors, since they deal with real, immutable factors like gravity, yield strength, vapor pressure, electrical potential and radiation flux tend to be Republican, although there are a few exceptions. The Democrats tend to prevail in “touchy – feely” areas like history, English, economics and so forth where facts aren’t so important.
States should cut off funds to the universities until they practice political diversity. Number of Republicans, Democrats, and third party professors should mirror that state’s registered voter percentages. Sort of political quota system.
Although I do agree with CCrider that today’s university model will be gone in about 10 years.
They say if you can’t do, teach.
What else would you expect these Democrat professors to be doing?
I’m wondering how similar the ratio in public schools might be (or not be).
It’s everything since 1964 not just schools. Once liberals and minorities have the power, they hire their own and purge Conservatives. We must return to a Meritocracy with a Civil Service Exam or we will soon become like Darkest Africa.
Wow I am shocked : NOT , people who have never really done an honest day’s work that ground them down to a nub and if they ever have it was so long ago they are clueless of reality and exist in their shielded little bubble feeling entitled to other people’s money so they can convince their children how evil and stupid their parents are for attempting to retain more of what they work for . After all people such as liberal academia know what’s best for them and the money these great unwashed earn . William Ayres Bernidean Dorn ,look they helped give us Obama after attempting to bomb and succeeding government buildings fine examples of liberal think and speak ! At least Ward Chruchill served in Nam so as much as I may disagree he walked the walk so he gets to talk the talk ! The rest of these assholes are just full of shit !
Today’s democrat is essentially a communist.
those that can do, those that cant teach