Stigler planned a research institute to impose economics on social science

Evidence

In an unpublished 1971 memo proposing a privately funded research institute, he insisted: “The relevance of this work to public policy will be both indirect and decisive … It is essentially and exclusively scientific work, and is intended to work its effects upon the appropriate disciplines (economics and political science) rather directly than on public opinion. The work will often shatter the fond hopes of the scholarly professions.” Stigler argued that using science was the best—indeed, the only—way to achieve the influence that patrons might desire. He proposed using two types of studies to deliver this influence. The first would study the effects of past economic policies to develop techniques for auditing and guiding, and therefore controlling, administrative bodies. The second would study and test hypotheses on the nature of the political process, for the purpose of counteracting the attitudes of political scientists and economists within those academic disciplines. Together, these studies would impose the standards of an economic elite on the social sciences. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 152

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to general theme of how the neoliberal thought network deliberately cultivated academic-political influence channels rather than direct public persuasion. — connects to: Stigler deliberately designed a contract-research institute as an authoritarian counter to university tenure. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 150

Broader Connections

• Stigler deliberately designed a contract-research institute as an authoritarian counter to university tenure. #expands (0.88) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 150