{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03232607167955025, 'fraction_numerical': 0.018973998594518624, 'mean_word_length': 5.033898305084746, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Democratising the economic debate. Pluralism and research evaluation

on policy issues. Some prominent economists have been accused of sexual molestation. Even Karl Marx made racist remarks and, while married, had an illegitimate child with his housekeeper (Hodgson 2006, ch. 2). Consider Veblen in this context. Unlike many of Veblen’s contemporaries, Leonard finds no racist statement in his writing but insinuates that Veblen followed the trend at the time to support eugenics. Leonard (2016, 74) cites Veblen’s 1927 essay (published in Veblen (1934)) “An experiment in eugenics” in support. In fact, Veblen’s essay is a biting satirical attack on eugenics, and still worth a read for that reason. There is also no evidence that Veblen was a sexual predator (Jorgensen and Jorgensen 1999; Eby 2001). No document or worthwhile testimony suggests that he was unfaithful to his wife until several years after he had asked her for a divorce. Who today, apart from the strictest guardians of ancient moral tradition, would convict Veblen on the basis of the known and reliable evidence? Veblen’s academic downturn was provoked by sexual scandal, but it was tragic and unjustified. It is ironic that Veblen–over a century ago–was convicted on allegations of sexual misconducted, while the racism and sexism of some of his contemporary colleagues went unnoticed. Camic is a strong witness for Veblen’s posthumous reinstatement.