The authoritarian Left is in the minority among academics. The Legatum study found 1 in 10 academics support preventing speakers whose views might offend from speaking on campus and 17% thought those with extreme views should not feel free to express them openly.
UNHERD POLITICAL BIAS REGISTRATION
Studies using voter registration data for the US, which are more comprehensive, show a ratio of around 12:1. I found ratios of 9:1 in Britain and 14:1 in the US and Canada. Most academics lean Left. This study found a Left:Right ratio of 7.5 to 1.The answers confirmed many of the findings of my previous work on academic freedom in the UK, and other studies.
UNHERD POLITICAL BIAS FOR FREE
The Legatum survey asked SSH academics from the top 12 universities in the US, Britain, Canada and Australia about their political beliefs, support for free speech, and attitudes to various political and policy questions. What we face is not Timur Kuran’s problem of the silent liberal majority too scared to speak, but rather that of a Left-wing academic majority taking an increasingly illiberal turn. In other words, the free speech crisis springs from the political discrimination that runs rampant on campus. While most academics support free speech, they simultaneously back politically discriminatory measures that restrict the freedom of political minorities such as conservatives and gender-critical feminists.
This restricts academic freedom and the truth-seeking mission of the university, permitting confirmation bias to flourish. A new report from Matthew Goodwin of the Legatum Institute confirms as much namely, that academics in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) lean strongly Left, many are biased against conservatives, and the latter are massively self-censoring. Political bias is driving the free speech crisis on campus. A preponderance of Left-wing academics is drowning out other voices
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