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What should be the standards for scholarly criticism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

MARY M. SHIRLEY*
Affiliation:
President, Ronald Coase Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA

Abstract:

Should scholars, like columnists, exaggerate and aggregate opposing views into men of straw? I analyse an example of scholarly criticism that characterizes the treatment of development in institutional economics as a simplistic and extremist paradigm. I argue that scholarly standards demand a complete and honest portrayal of contrary opinions and that straw men should be banished from scholarly discourse.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The JOIE Foundation 2011

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