Some reflections on the doctrinal reasons for the paleolibertarian attack on Argentine public science

Abstract

In this essay I explore some doctrinal reasons for the Argentine government's attack on public science and, in particular, on the social sciences. It takes place within the framework of a cultural, political and economic battle of a far-right government, which declares itself ideologically (paleo)libertarian. From this point of view, the existence of public research and education cannot be justified, since, on the one hand, they are financed by taxes that are by definition expropriatory and, on the other, they serve to legitimize a statist outlook that they seek to combat. The latter would be particularly true in the case of the social and human sciences, since their social utility cannot be measured in economic or quantifiable terms. From the paleolibertarian perspective, taxes or monetary emission, which could be used to finance public S&T institutions, are considered a theft from the owners in order to maintain ‘parasites’, propagandists of the ‘statist mafia’ and propagators of ‘cultural Marxism’. In this framework, public issues such as climate change, crime or epidemics are denied or addressed under a mercantile and privatist logic. In this sense, it could be said that, rather than rejecting science tout court, libertarians and conservatives reject those that demonstrate the need for state action. Against this position, I argue that the existence of common problems to which the market cannot provide satisfactory answers makes necessary the contribution of public science in general and of the social and human sciences in particular.