Ken Arrow scoffs at charges of academic discrimination against non-liberals:

It’s hard for me to judge, of course, but I must say that my department contains a number of Republicans. And they were appointed by a democratic group, whose members said these guys are good, and we’ve got to hire them. And so far, I have not seen it work the other way, but I’m a little concerned about where it could swing. In this case, the criticism seems to be just wrong, because I think the departments hire on the basis of merit. And I think it’s nonsense to say that we’re discriminating against Republicans. We hire them all the time.

I stand by my earlier claim that non-profits in general, and university departments in particular, can and do care about a lot more than merit, though admittedly my reflections on Intellectual Gladiators partly support Arrow.

Hat tip to Tyler.