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In this analysis The Common Sense examines new research by University of Rochester political scientist David Primo, published by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). That research created an ideological spectrum for America, from the far left to the far right. It then placed more than 30 000 university professors from 55 leading universities on that spectrum and compared them to members of the United States (US) Congress. The findings could easily be extrapolated to any universities in the Western World, including those in South Africa.

Primo had access to something called the Database on Ideology, Money in Politics and Elections. This is a database that records more than 850 million donations to American political parties, candidates, and campaigns since 1979. He was able to draw out of that database information on the donations given by tens of thousands of American university professors. The database scored those donations on a scale indicative of where on the ideological spectrum the donor's donation would place them. For example, a donation to a hard-left or a hard-right candidate would allow the donor to be scored on that spectrum, as would a donation to a moderate or centrist candidate.

The scores range from -2.0 to +2.0. Negative scores would represent left-wing values and the more negative the score was, the more left-wing the donor in question was. The same applied for right-wing scores which were on the positive side of the scale.

[Note: American political vocabulary differs from South African usage. In the United States, “liberal” describes the left of the political spectrum, aligned with the Democratic Party and favouring greater state intervention, redistribution, and progressive social policy. “Conservative” describes the right, aligned with the Republican Party and favouring free markets, limited government, and traditional social values. An American liberal is therefore closer to what a South African would call a left-winger or progressive, not to the classical liberalism familiar to readers of this publication.]

The results are stark. The median donating professor scores -1.02. To give you a relative sense of what that means, the views and positions of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the furthest-left member of the US House, scored -1.16 for her policy positions. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the furthest left in the Senate, scored -1.14 for their positions.

Other surveys have found essentially the same thing, the data from which are set out in the chart below. That chart first shows the results of a survey conducted by FIRE in 2024, which sought to find out what proportion of faculty self-identified as either far left or far right. The chart then shows the results of a survey of what proportion of American academics are registered Democrats and what proportion are registered Republicans. Lastly, the chart shows the results of a third study that measured the relative amount donated by American academics to Democratic candidates and causes, compared to Republican candidates and causes.

The data show the same strong leaning to the political left in American academia.

What can be read into all of that?

The most important read is probably that the balance of American academic opinion must necessarily be understood as biased to the left and hard left and it is through that lens that the advice, opinion, and moral positions taken by the great bulk of American universities and their senior staff should be read. A further important read is to consider the impact that this has on the indoctrination of young elite Americans and what the long-term implications of that would be for America’s future as a free society. The third read is to consider the extent to which American universities are exporting left-wing ideology to much of the rest of the world and what the implication for the broader Western order may be.