Intentioned Recession: An Ideologically Driven Re-Structuring

Abstract

Viewing broad middle class economic losses from the Great Recession as an accident leads many to imagine that a return to pre-recession policies and practices will restore this group's economic prosperity. Another perspective views these losses as part of a larger pattern of economic and political disenfranchisement directed toward the American middle class. To the extent that those who benefit from an event might be recognized as having a hand in its creation, insight into the values and beliefs held by this recession's beneficiaries may prove useful in designing policy changes needed to stem or reverse the continued enactment of these wider goals. This paper offers that insight: using responses to an original survey administered to faculty at major research universities across the United States in 2008–2009, certain values and beliefs held by academics across many departments and disciplines may be observed. Three interdependent elements pertaining to citizen democracy including population well-being, tolerance of contest and dissent, and citizen controlled majority rule are explored. The flip side of each—support and justification for hierarchy and inequality, intolerance of dissent, and valuing business dominance and power over citizen democracy—are often found in business operations today. Academics in business schools show stronger support for these latter values than do faculty in other fields; as business has emerged as a clear beneficiary from the Great Recession, this ideology may usefully serve as a reverse guide to policy change if greater equality in population well-being, and increased citizen-controlled democracy, are desired.