The Claim for Pluralism in Economics: What is Behind It?

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the grounds for the demand for pluralism in economics put forward by some economists. In this paper we analyze various interpretations of economic pluralism, focusing on ‘paradigmatic’ or ‘strategic’ type of pluralism. This ‘paradigmatic’ or ‘strategic’ pluralism implies such requirement as ensuring equal access for supporters of various heterodox streams of economic thought to various capitals of the prevailing stream – the economics mainstream. The characteristics of competition in science as the basis for the growth of scientific knowledge are considered in the paper, as well as the changes that have occurred in the competition process as a result of the spread of neoliberal science policy. The emergence of a new type of competition – the competition between government departments that finance basic research – is revealed. It is demonstrated that this type of competition among scientists results in opportunistic behavior which is expressed in the concentration of academic workers on indicators rather than on work itself. This tendency hinders the growth of scientific knowledge and creates incentives for unfair competitive actions. Measures of the above mentioned type of scientific policy also create organizational and economic difficulties for representatives of heterodox economics research programs, to overcome which the demands for achieving economic pluralism were launched. From the point of view of competition in science, these requirements are an attempt at unfair competitive actions. Based on this, alternative proposals for the development of heterodox research programs are proposed.