The End[s] of Tenure?

Excellent discussion on academic [and judicial] tenure over at the Becker-Posner Blog.

Posner:

I do not think tenure makes a great deal of sense any longer in the academic setting, and I expect to see it gradually abandoned. [here]

Becker:

The traditional justification for academic tenure is that otherwise professors would be unwilling to express unpopular views for fear of being fired. This argument for academic tenure is extremely weak in the United States where several thousand colleges and universities compete for professors. [here]

The comments sections are particularly interesting, as are Becker and Posner's responses [here] and [here].