Are academic politics so vicious because the stakes are so small?

Dear Quote Investigator: The following saying is often attributed to the prominent U.S. foreign policy figure and Nobel laureate Henry Kissinger: Academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. But I have also seen it attributed to the political scientist Wallace Sayre.

Who said the politics of the University are so intense?

History. Political scientist Herbert Kaufman, a colleague and coauthor of Sayre, has attested to Fred R. Shapiro, editor of The Yale Book of Quotations, that Sayre usually stated his claim as “The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low”, and that Sayre originated the quip by the early 1950s.

Which is the most vicious and bitter form of politics?

Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low. Politics on the university campus are the worst of all kinds of politics because the stakes are so small. Campus politics are so nasty because the stakes are so small.

Are the Stakes really so small in politics?

It used to be said of politics on the university campus that it was the worst of all kinds of politics because the stakes were so small. We should be able to take at least minor comfort, then, from the present situation in the educational world: The stakes today are not at all small.

I couldn’t disagree more with Henry Kissinger’s infamous remark, “Academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small.” If I had a chance to meet Kissinger, I would shake hands with him and correct him: “You yourself owe a lot to the academy of which you thought so little.

Are educational qualifications for politicians necessary?

Thus now our politicians need to be qualified and educated. So this leads to a very common discussion that Weather Educational Qualifications for politicians are necessary or not? Politician should be people with high education because many leadership attributes are gained through education.

Why do people not want to become professors?

People do not choose to become professors in order to serve a system or to promote an ethos that thrives on fast successes and windfall profits. Because they do not believe in making money except for the purpose of preserving human dignity, academics do not consider money to be one of the top priorities in their lives.

Do we write articles for the general public or politicians?

While we write our articles in academic journals and think we have contributed to public discourse, neither the general public nor politicians read them. Instead of expecting people outside the academy to come to us, we have to go to them.