Political Correctness in Academia

This book explores the phenomenon of political correctness in academia and explains why and how scholars and administrators impact PC’s prominence in the academic sphere. To do so, it examines the actions of these agents through the lens of public choice theory, revealing how self-interested strategies drive the policies and norms of the university.

The book examines the ideological dimensions of political correctness and highlights four key spheres of influence – academic research, higher education curricula, affirmative action and speech codes. The book offers a nuanced exploration of how PC and liberalism have common ground. It demonstrates how the liberal values of equality and individual liberty largely underpin PC, whose regulatory function is to protect a liberal value system from illiberal truth claims. Yet the book also shows how interest groups form around the concept of PC in universities and have successfully used systems of rent-seeking and collective action to shape institutional policy and protect their members from ideological and professional competition, which can be seen as a violation of classical liberal principles of fair competition and equal opportunity. This book is a valuable tool for researchers working in political economy and PPE (politics, philosophy and economics), as well as those interested in the political economy of academia and the concept of PC more generally.

Sandra Dzenis is a Research Affiliate at King's College London, where she completed her PhD in Political Economy in 2020. Her research explores the intersection of politics, philosophy, and economics, with a focus on applying positive political theory to the study of speech policies and norms in liberal societies.