Economists’ self-denying neutrality limited their influence on popular political debate

Evidence

Economists, he determined, were “entirely neutral between ends.” Their role was to determine how to pursue predetermined goals with the greatest possible effi ciency. … Robbins’s advice, to the extent that it was followed, served as a rhetorical straitjacket. Po liti cal debate, particularly in times of duress, relies heavily on the invocation of norms. Economists who adopt a selfdenying ordinance in regard to discussions of philosophical ends limit their public speech on economic matters to the discursive realm of technocratic expertise. As progressive reformers had discovered a generation earlier, the hold of scientifi c effi ciency on the pop u lar imagination is not strong. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 125

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader story of how economists’ claimed scientific neutrality constrained their public advocacy — relevant to the reader’s work on Mont Pèlerin intellectual history. — connects to: Economists’ ineffectual model disputes distract the public from threatening crisis explanations — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 840; Economists’ appeals to science deflected attention from their own failure — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 483; Small networked elite groups can dominate policy debates without being a majority — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 443 (+4 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies that Robbins’s demand for ends-neutrality was a limited claim about scientific authority, not a ban on public engagement.

Broader Connections

• Economists’ appeals to science deflected attention from their own failure #complicates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 483
• Small networked elite groups can dominate policy debates without being a majority #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 443
• Economists’ ineffectual model disputes distract the public from threatening crisis explanations #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 840
• Economists defended failed prediction by asserting contradictory claims at once #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 697