Is higher education politically liberal?

The answer is clearly yes.

In virtually every field within academia, the great majority of professors identify strongly

with both leftist causes and the Democratic Party.

Wheredown sociologist Seymour Nipsitt was one of the first to examine this question.

Based on a number of surveys taken since World War II, Nipsitt concluded that academics

weren't likely than any other occupational group to identify their views as left or liberal.

Researchers tend to support a wide variety of egalitarian social and economic policies.

They're far more likely to vote for democratic candidates, and in many cases back leftist

third parties.

While Nipsitt based his conclusions on faculty surveys from the 1950s through the early

1980s, more recent studies show that the professoriate's commitment to leftist politics has

only strengthened.

In our book, The Still Divided Academy, my colleagues April Kelly-Westner, the late Stanley

Rothman and I, taken in-depth look at faculty views at the beginning of this century,

consistent with earlier studies we find that a mere 12% of professors see themselves as

Republicans, but even this statistic is deceiving.

Among the small minority of faculty who call themselves Republicans, 51% approach choice,

63% support more environmental regulations, even though it had cost people their jobs,

and 39% of Republicans believe that the government should work to reduce the income gap between

the rich and the poor.

It's not only are there relatively fewer Republicans in the ranks of the faculty, but many of

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