RHETORIC AND IDEOLOGY IN ECONOMICS TEXTBOOKS: AN OVERVIEW

This paper reviews the somewhat disconnected studies on the introductory level economics textbooks. First, specifying the best-sellers, it is argued that there is visible standardization and concentration in the textbook market. Second, studies focusing on the rhetorical and ideological aspects of economics textbooks are reviewed. While the heterodoxy, with determination, asserts that economics is inherently political and ideological, the mainstream, understandably, tends to deny the ideological underpinnings of the economics they do. After coherently reviewing the narrow literature, the paper contributes by pointing out the gap in rhetoric-ideology nexus and suggesting an agenda for future research.

___

  • Alchian, A. A. and Allen, W. R. (1972). University economics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
  • Alston, R. M., Kearl, J. R. and Vaughan, M. B. (1992). Is there a consensus among economists in the 1990’s? The American Economic Review, 82(2): 203–209.
  • Anyon, J. (1979). Ideology and United States history textbooks. Harvard Educational Review, 49(3): 361- 386.
  • Aslanbeigui, N. and Naples, M. I. (1996). Positivism versus paradigms: The epistemological underpinnings of economic debate in introductory textbooks. In N. Aslanbeigui and M. I. Naples (Eds.), Rethinking economic principles: Critical essays on introductory textbooks, in: 11–27. Chicago, IL: Irwin.
  • Bailey, C. (1992). Enterprise and liberal education: Some reservations. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 26(1): 99–106. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9752.1992.tb00268.x
  • Baumol, W. J. and Blinder, A. S. (1979). Economics: Principles and policy. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  • Bicchieri, C. (1988). Should a scientist abstain from metaphor? In A. Klamer, D. N. McCloskey, and R. M. Solow (Eds.), The consequences of economic rhetoric in: 100–116. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
  • Bowles, S., Edwards, R. and Roosevelt, F. (2005). Understanding capitalism: Competition, command, and change. (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Bowles, S. and Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America: Educational reform and the contradictions of economic life. New York: Basic Books.
  • Byrns, R. T. and Stone, G. W. (1992). Economics. (5th ed.). New York: Harper Collins Cameron, K. S., Ireland, R. D.,
  • Lussier, R. N., New, J. R. and Robbins, S. P. (2003). Management textbooks as propaganda. Journal of Management Education, 27(6): 711–729. doi: https://doi. org/10.1177/1052562903257942
  • Carvellas, J., Kessel, H. and Ramazani, R. (1996). Counting pages: The evolution of the economics principles text. In N. Aslanbeigui and M. Naples (Eds.), Rethinking Economic Principles, in: 225-242. Chicago, IL: Irwin.
  • Cherry, R. (1985). Textbook treatments of minimum-wage legislation. The Review of Black Political Economy, 13(4): 25–38. doi: 10.1007/BF02899888
  • Chomsky, N. (1975). Toward a humanistic conception of education. In W. Feinberg, and H. Rosemont (Eds.), Work, technology, and education: Dissenting essays in the intellectual foundations of American education, in: 219. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
  • Clarke, P. and Mearman, A. (2003). Why Marxist economics should be taught but probably won’t be! Capital and Class, 27(1): 55–80. doi: 10.1177/030981680307900105
  • Colander, D. (2005). What economists teach and what economists do. The Journal of Economic Education, 36(3): 249-260.
  • Feiner, S. F. (1993). Introductory economics textbooks and the treatment of issues relating to women and minorities, 1984 and 1991. The Journal of Economic Education, 24(2): 145-162.
  • Fullbrook, E. (2009). The meltdown and economics textbooks. The Handbook of Pluralist Economics Education, 9, 17.
  • Galbraith, J. K. (1997). The good society: The humane agenda. Boston, MA: Houghton
  • Goldschmidt, N. and Szmrecsanyi, B. (2007). What do economists talk about? A linguistic analysis of published writing in economic journals. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 66(2): 335–378. doi: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00514.x
  • Habermas, J. (1978). Knowledge and human interests. (2nd ed.). London, U.K.: Heinemann Educational.
  • Heilbroner, R. L. and Galbraith. J. K. (1987). The economic problem (8th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
  • Heilbroner, R. L. (1988). Rhetoric and ideology. In A. Klamer, D. N. McCloskey and R. Solow (Eds.), The Consequences of economic rhetoric, in: 38-43. Cambridge University Press.
  • Heilbroner, R. (1996). The embarrassment of economics. Challenge, 39(6): 46–49. doi: 10.1080/05775132.1996.11471942
  • Heilbroner, R. (2010). Economics as ideology. In W. J. Samuels (Ed.), Economics As Discourse: An Analysis of the Language of Economists, in: 101. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic.
  • Hill, R. (2000). The case of the missing organizations: co-operatives and the textbooks. The Journal of Economic Education, 31(3): 281-295.
  • Hobsbawm, E. J. (2011). On history. London, U.K.: Abacus. Hunt, E. K. and Sherman, H. J. (1975). Economics an introduction to traditional and radical views. (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
  • Jevons, S. W. (1871). The theory of political economy. New York: Macmillan.
  • Kalmi, P. (2007). The disappearance of cooperatives from economics textbooks. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 31(4): 625-647.
  • King, J. E. and Millmow, A. (2003). Death of a revolutionary textbook. History of Political Economy, 35(1): 105-134.
  • Klamer, A. (1987). As if economists and their subjects were rational. In J. S. Nelson, A. Megill, and D. N. McCloskey (Eds.), The rhetoric of the human sciences, in: 163–183. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
  • Klamer, A., McCloskey, D. N. and Solow, R. M. (1988). The consequences of economic rhetoric. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
  • Klamer, A. (2013). The textbook presentation of economic discourse. In W. J. Samuels (Ed.), Economics as discourse: An analysis of the language of economists, in: 129–154. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic.
  • Linder, M. C. and Sensat, J. (1977). The anti-Samuelson. New York: Urizen Books.
  • Lipsey, R. G., Purvis, D. D. and Steiner, P.O. (1991). Economics (7th. ed.). New York: Harper Collins.
  • Long, M. (2014). The Principles from Marshall to Mankiw: Historical Changes to Methodological Discussion in Introductory Economics Textbooks. http://cdmbuntu.lib.utah.edu/utils/getfile/collection/wc-ir/ id/69/filename/70.pdf, Retrieved from: 1 March, 2018.
  • Lopus, J. S. and Paringer, L. (2012). The principles of economics textbook: content coverage and usage. International handbook on teaching and learning economics, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar: 296-304.
  • Maier, M. (2003). From the classroom to the White House: N. Gregory Mankiw’s popular textbook distorts economics. Dollars & Sense, 248: 28–31.
  • Mäki, U. (1988). How to combine rhetoric and realism in the methodology of economics. Economics and Philosophy, 4(1): 89–109. doi: 10.1017/S0266267100000353
  • Mäki, U. (1995). Diagnosing McCloskey. Journal of Economic Literature, 33(3): 1300–1318.
  • Mankiw, N. G. (2006, December 19). Does econ make people conservative? [Blog post]. http://gregmankiw. blogspot.com/2006/12/does-econ-make-people-conservative.html, Retrieved from: 1 March, 2018.
  • McCloskey, D. N. (1998). The rhetoric of economics. (2nd ed.). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
  • McConnell, C. R. and Brue, S.L. (1990) Economics: Principles, Problems, and Policies. (11th ed.). New York:
  • Mirowski, P. (1992). Do economists suffer from physics envy? Finnish Economic Papers, 5(1): 61-68.
  • Myrdal, G. (1978). Institutional economics. Journal of Economic Issues, 12(4): 771–783. doi: 10.1080/00213624.1978.11503577
  • Phelps, E. S. (1985). Political economy: An introductory text. New York: Norton & Co.
  • Popkewitz, T. S. (1977). The latent values of the discipline-centered curriculum. Theory & Research in Social Education, 5(1): 41–60.
  • Robinson, J., and Eatwell, J. (1973). An introduction to modern economics. London: McGraw-Hill.
  • Romanish, B. A. (1983). Modern secondary economics textbooks and ideological bias. Theory and Research in Social Education, 11(1): 1–24. doi: 10.1080/00933104.1983.10505440
  • Roose, K. (2013). Why Are College Students Flocking to Economics? New York Magazine. http://nymag. com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/why-are-college-students-flocking-to-economics.html,
  • Rubinstein, A. (2000). Economics and language: Five essays. Cambridge, U. K.: Cambridge University Press.
  • Ruffin, R. and Gregory, P. R. (1997). Principles of economics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
  • Samuelson, P. A. (1948). Economics: An introductory analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  • Schumpeter, J. (1994). Science and ideology. In D. M. Hausman (Ed.), The philosophy of economics: An anthology (2nd ed.), in: 224–238. Cambridge, U. K.: Cambridge University Press.
  • Snyder, T. D. and Dillow, S. A. (2013). Digest of Education Statistics 2013. NCES 2015-011. Jessup, MD: National Center for Education Statistics.
  • Söderbaum, P. (2008). Economics as ideology. In E. Fullbrook (Ed.), Pluralist economics. New York: Zed Books.
  • Stiglitz, J. E. (1988). On the market for principles of economics textbooks: Innovation and product differentiation. The Journal of Economic Education, 19(2): 171–177. doi: 10.2307/1182289
  • Van Dijk, T. A. (2000). Ideology and discourse: A multidisciplinary introduction. Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona.
  • Walstad, W. B., Watts, M. and Bosshardt, W. (1998). The principles of economics textbook: history, content, and use. In W. B. Walstad & P. Saunders (Eds.). Teaching undergraduate economics. A handbook for instructors. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill.
  • Webster, A. (1978). Ideology and ‘A’ level economics textbooks. Economics, 14(3): 85–87.
  • Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. (Eds.). (2016). Methods of critical discourse analysis (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
  • Zinn, H. (2005). A people’s history of the United States. New York: Harper Collins.
  • Zuidhof, P. W. (2014). Thinking like an economist: The neoliberal politics of the economics textbook. Review of Social Economy, 72(2): 157-185.