Dani Rodrik's Mainstream Identity Crisis?

At one of the linked blogs on this blog, Crooked Timber, there is a lively blog seminar discussion about One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions and Economic Growth, a book by Dani Rodrik (whose blog is also linked on this blog- blog blog blog). I was reading through the different commentaries on the book (which seems extremely interesting, so maybe when I make it to Thanksgiving I will take the time to read it). A couple of them stuck out to me because they really seemed to emphasize how carefully Rodrik tread when addressing the issues in development economics. Aside from the debate about whether the Washington consensus is good policy, there is some good discussion about how non-mainstream theories enter into this book or do not. I don't have time to give a couple interesting sound bytes, but I suggest that you go to Crooked Timber and read through all the commentaries (if you have an hour to kill).

The two in particular that address neoclassical/heterodox tensions are Henry Farrell's "More Politics, Many Recipes" and David Warsh's "Through the Hourglass". Basically what I drew from these two commentaries is that: a) Rodrik seems adamant about establishing himself as a mainstream economist that uses mainstream approaches (he says explicitly in his intro that he will not draw from "political economy"-his quotes- in his analysis); and b) He ends up criticizing many of the mainstream approaches and using extra-economic approaches in his formulations.

I think this quote sums it up best:

"it seems to me that a more accurate title for the book would be “One Economics (plus some extra-economic reasoning, Many Politics, Many Recipes.”

Maybe Dani Rodrik has found a way to sneak heterodox thinking under the mainstream's noses- I am pretty excited to read the book and find out for myself.