Ascriptive Justice: The Prevalence, Distribution, and Consequences of Political Correctness in the Academy
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Solon Simmons
Using data from a new and representative sample of American college and university professors, this paper develops an empirical definition of ``political correctness," explores its distribution in the university setting, and examines its implications for university life. I demonstrate that the politically correct (PC) are more common in elite institutions, even though the un-PC are disproportionally among the academic ``stars" at such institutions. Additionally, the PC are more prevalent in the humanities and social sciences (except notably political science) and among the baby-boomer generation, in contrast to more recent cohorts of scholars. The critical manifestations of PC as a concept suggests that it has more to do with perceptions of material discrimination than it does with social sensitivity or moral relativism. Most importantly, while the PC—those most closely wedded to conceptions of what I call ``ascriptive justice"—are more willing than others to reveal their political commitments in the classroom and to let their passions guide their choice of research topics, there is strong support for academic freedom and no evidence of political intolerance in the group.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
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- The American People and President George W. Bush: The Fall, the Rise and Fall Again
- George W. Bush and Washington Governance: Effective Use of a Self-Limiting Style
- Changing Course: Reversing the Organizational Trajectory of the Democratic Party from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama
- The Death and Life of the New Democrats
- Searching for Voters along the Liberal-Conservative Continuum: The Infrequent Ideologue and the Missing Middle
- The Limbaugh Effect: A Rush to Judging Cross-Party Raiding in the 2008 Democratic Nomination Contests
- The Demise of New Labour? The British 'Mid-Term' Elections of 2008
- Ascriptive Justice: The Prevalence, Distribution, and Consequences of Political Correctness in the Academy
- Response or Comment
- Comment on Simmons' Study of Political Correctness in the Academy
- Rejoinder to Professor Maranto
- Response to Weaver
- Review
- Review of Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s
- Review of The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America and Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- The American People and President George W. Bush: The Fall, the Rise and Fall Again
- George W. Bush and Washington Governance: Effective Use of a Self-Limiting Style
- Changing Course: Reversing the Organizational Trajectory of the Democratic Party from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama
- The Death and Life of the New Democrats
- Searching for Voters along the Liberal-Conservative Continuum: The Infrequent Ideologue and the Missing Middle
- The Limbaugh Effect: A Rush to Judging Cross-Party Raiding in the 2008 Democratic Nomination Contests
- The Demise of New Labour? The British 'Mid-Term' Elections of 2008
- Ascriptive Justice: The Prevalence, Distribution, and Consequences of Political Correctness in the Academy
- Response or Comment
- Comment on Simmons' Study of Political Correctness in the Academy
- Rejoinder to Professor Maranto
- Response to Weaver
- Review
- Review of Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s
- Review of The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America and Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power
