A Defense of Affirmative Action for Conservatives

ABSTRACT The suggestion that academia should promote political diversity, implying as it does that the status quo is severely deficient, is commonly rejected on the grounds that to do so would require “affirmative action for conservatives.” That conclusion is typically treated as a reductio ad absurdum even by those who support conventional race‐ and sex‐based affirmative action. Nevertheless, this paper defends affirmative action for conservatives on both negative and positive grounds. It argues that since conservatives are discriminated against throughout academia, policies that benefit them in admissions and hiring would not be unjust to those who bear its burden. And it argues that the advantages of increased political diversity would accrue not just to those with heterodox opinions but would improve the intellectual atmosphere of academia at large. Hence, conservative affirmative action promotes the traditional academic mission and its norms of meritocracy, academic freedom, and the pursuit of knowledge; and it is not unjust to those with orthodox political views.