Orthodox economists’ model-legitimacy criterion is political, not epistemic.

Evidence

While he sneers at everyone else’s epistemic criteria and explanatory demands, it is significant that Williamson never once feels impelled to make explicit his own nonnegotiable litmus test for legitimate purposes in construction of models. Yet, looking back over his defense, it becomes clear: it is political, in the sense that if a particular model helps reify the neoliberal worldview, than it passes muster a fortiori. Williamson is subconsciously aware of this, since he turns swiftly to indict Quiggin for believing that proponents of DSGE, and zombie economics more generally, are “complicit in the conspiracy to make the rich richer by robbing the poor.” — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 793

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that a technical discipline’s implicit acceptance criteria are political tests of ideological fealty is a dense, paradigm-level argument.
• SEED: Angle: ‘When Method Masks Politics’ — how technical communities defend discredited models because the real acceptance test is ideological.
• XREF: connects to: Frameworks for economic change should be judged by theoretical usefulness, not absolute truth. — Greta R. Krippner, The Financialization of the American…, 129; The social market economy was a political tool, not a closed economic theory. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 554; Economics doctrine functions not to explain reality but to defend capitalism. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 242

Broader Connections

• Economics doctrine functions not to explain reality but to defend capitalism. #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 242
• The social market economy was a political tool, not a closed economic theory. #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 554
• Frameworks for economic change should be judged by theoretical usefulness, not absolute truth. #complicates (0.70) — Greta R. Krippner, The Financialization of the American…, 129