The Legal Academy's Ideological Uniformity

Adam Bonica, Adam Chilton, Kyle Rozema and Maya Sen
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Adam Bonica: Stanford University
Adam Chilton: University of Chicago
Kyle Rozema: Northwestern University
Maya Sen: Harvard University

Working Paper Series from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government

Abstract: We compare the ideological balance of the legal academy to the ideological balance of the legal profession. To do so, we match professors listed in the Association of American Law Schools Directory of Law Teachers and lawyers listed in the Martindale-Hubbell directory to a measure of political ideology based on political donations. We find that 15% of law professors, compared to 35% of lawyers, are conservative. After controlling for individual characteristics, however, this 20 percentage point ideological gap narrows to around 13 percentage points. We argue that this ideological uniformity marginalizes law professors, but that it may not be possible to improve the ideological balance of the legal academy without sacrificing other values.

Date: 2017-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp17-023

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