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<p>While the effect of academic discipline on political attitudes has long been acknowledged, much less is known on how disciplinary background affects policy attitudes. Linder and Peters (1992) argued that attitudes to policy instruments correspond with discipline: lawyers are assumed to tend to be partial to legalistic regulatory instruments, economists to favor economic tools such as loans or taxation. Nevertheless, relevant empirical evidence is almost non-existent. The paper attempts to bridge this gap by comparing policy instruments attitudes in different academic disciplines on a sample of Czech university students (N = 8820). We inquire whether students in different academic fields (with special emphasis on economics, law, education, political science, and mass media/journalism) differ in their political and policy views. In line with previous research, students pursuing economics and law (as well as education) are found to be more right-wing oriented than students of political science and mass media. Students also differ in terms of their overall acceptance of policy instruments, with those of political science being the most accepting of all types of instruments. However, we find little support for the correspondence thesis proposed by Linder and Peters.</p>
</abstract>

While the effect of academic discipline on political attitudes has long been acknowledged, much less is known on how disciplinary background affects policy attitudes. Linder and Peters (1992) argued that attitudes to policy instruments correspond with discipline: lawyers are assumed to tend to be partial to legalistic regulatory instruments, economists to favor economic tools such as loans or taxation. Nevertheless, relevant empirical evidence is almost non-existent. The paper attempts to bridge this gap by comparing policy instruments attitudes in different academic disciplines on a sample of Czech university students (N = 8820). We inquire whether students in different academic fields (with special emphasis on economics, law, education, political science, and mass media/journalism) differ in their political and policy views. In line with previous research, students pursuing economics and law (as well as education) are found to be more right-wing oriented than students of political science and mass media. Students also differ in terms of their overall acceptance of policy instruments, with those of political science being the most accepting of all types of instruments. However, we find little support for the correspondence thesis proposed by Linder and Peters.

The Effect of Academic Discipline on Policy Attitudes: The Case of Czech University Students

Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

While the effect of academic discipline on political attitudes has long been acknowledged, much less is known on how disciplinary background affects policy...

The Effect of Academic Discipline on Policy Attitudes: The Case of Czech University Students

Published Online: Jun 14, 2022

Page range: 223 - 249

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nispa-2022-0010

Keywords
academic discipline, policy attitudes, policy design, policy instruments, survey

© 2022 Arnošt Veselý et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Effect of Academic Discipline on Policy Attitudes: The Case of Czech University Students

Published Online: Jun 14, 2022

Page range: 223 - 249

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nispa-2022-0010

Keywordsacademic discipline, policy attitudes, policy design, policy instruments, survey

© 2022 Arnošt Veselý et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
academic discipline, policy attitudes, policy design, policy instruments, survey