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Just a bit on textbook publishers.   
 
I don't think it is appropriate to blame textbook publishers for perpetuating AS/AD or for
perpetuating any model. Publishers don't care all that much about the particular models
that go into texts. They care about selling books. So, in my view, they do not perpetuate
anything. What they do is provide part of  the institutional structure that perpetuates
it. With the merging of publishers, much  competition of texts occurs within textbook
publishers. They want to have 3 or 4 large selling texts, and they put their resources
into selling them. The others are generally dropped or published by smaller publishers,
and they have generally do not do well.
 
In choosing among texts, and in revising existing texts, they send the manuscript to many
reviewers--likely users, not specialists--and those reviewers play a central role in any
revision process. What the publishers naturally want is for the reviewers to be excited
about what they see. Reviewers have many views and motives, and a textbook author can or
cannot follow what they suggest, but if he or she does not follow it, (when there is a
clear pattern coming from the reviews, which often there is not), the publisher will see
the textbook author as intransigent. Too much intransigence and the publisher will give up
on the book. The degree of intransigence a textbook author can have varies with how well-
known the author is.
 
Here's the strategic problem presented the textbook author: To make a difference in the
presentation, the textbook author has to have the support of the publisher which means
that he or she must not be too intransigent, but that means following reviewer's
suggestions, rather than sticking rigidly to one own view of how something should be
presented.
 
The intro course has become an institution, which means that it is expected that certain
things will be covered in it in certain ways. Many profs adopt a book without have
reviewed it thoroughly, and if, when they teach it, it differs significantly from their
presentation, they are often not happy.  Reviewers reflect that standard. Thus, it it only
reasonable that the intro books have to be coordinated to a certain degree to the industry
standard. This again pushes toward standardized presentations in the main texts, for the
same reason that there is a push toward an industry standard in other fields. I have
suggested a 15% rule which is the degree to which a major book can differ from the others.
Now, a book may change more than that 15%, and if the market moves with him or her, the
presentation will change. If however, it does not, that book will falter.
 
Dave Colander 
 
 
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