Economists present their discipline as value-free truths above class interests
Evidence
Technocracy dominates governmental policy making on multiple fronts. One is the historical convention of economists advising people who govern. Th e other is epistemic, a form whereby these economists frame economics— including the economic arguments they themselves posited— as having achieved a standpoint above class interests or partisanship. Economics, economists argue, constitutes valuefree truths about capitalism— natural facts of this world rather than constructed (or at least political) positions. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 51
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the epistemic dimension of technocracy — economics claiming standpoint above class/partisanship.
- SEED: Could seed an essay on value-neutrality claims in economics as a rhetorical class weapon.
- XREF: connects to: Elite economists were to serve patrons, not students, peers, or truth — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 158; The economists’ classless models concealed openly classist beliefs — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1306; Economists depoliticized austerity by presenting class-based coercion as neutral expertise. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1569 (+9 more)
Broader Connections
- The economists’ classless models concealed openly classist beliefs
#expands(0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1306 - Value-free scholarly inquiry presents the social status quo as natural rather than constructed
#expands(0.95) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 731 - Economists depoliticized austerity by presenting class-based coercion as neutral expertise.
#exemplifies(0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1569 - Economics legitimizes austerity claims by pretending to value-free objectivity.
#expands(0.90) - Pure economics expelled class analysis but smuggled class assumptions back in
#expands(0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1304 - Bourgeois economists avoided totalizing models out of class instinct
#exemplifies(0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 374 - Friedman’s positive-normative economics boundary cannot be trusted at face value
#qualifies(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1620 - Intellectuals must admit ideology rather than claim value-free science
#responds-to(0.85) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 435 - Neoclassical economics replaced class analysis with individualistic merit narratives
#expands(0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 30 - Economics functions as conflict over belief rather than objective science
#contradicts(0.80) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 779 - Economics actively shapes the economy rather than merely describing it
#expands(0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1987