Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: The Authoritarian Dynamic
- 2 Kindred Spirits, Common Spark: The Theory of the Authoritarian Dynamic
- 3 Manipulating Threat and Reassurance: Data and Methods
- 4 The Authoritarian Dynamic and the Politics of Fear: Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together
- 5 Authoritarianism and Conservatism across Cultures
- 6 Authoritarianism and Conservatism: How They Differ and When It Matters
- 7 One True People: Putting a Face on the Theory
- 8 One Right Way: Fleshing Out the Portrait
- 9 Manning the Barricades: Racism and Intolerance under Conditions of Normative Threat
- 10 The Authoritarian Dynamic: Implications
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the series
10 - The Authoritarian Dynamic: Implications
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: The Authoritarian Dynamic
- 2 Kindred Spirits, Common Spark: The Theory of the Authoritarian Dynamic
- 3 Manipulating Threat and Reassurance: Data and Methods
- 4 The Authoritarian Dynamic and the Politics of Fear: Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together
- 5 Authoritarianism and Conservatism across Cultures
- 6 Authoritarianism and Conservatism: How They Differ and When It Matters
- 7 One True People: Putting a Face on the Theory
- 8 One Right Way: Fleshing Out the Portrait
- 9 Manning the Barricades: Racism and Intolerance under Conditions of Normative Threat
- 10 The Authoritarian Dynamic: Implications
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the series
Summary
This work began with the conviction that racial, political, and moral intolerance, normally studied in isolation, are really kindred spirits: primarily driven by the same fundamental predisposition, fueled by the same motives, exacerbated by the same fears. While not discounting the value of providing a comprehensive account of all the ideas, interests, and emotions influencing intolerance in a specific domain, it seemed that insufficient attention had been paid to developing a parsimonious model illuminating general regularities in intolerant behavior: one that could help all of us better understand the particular expressions of intolerance of interest to us.
To this end, I set about resuscitating the concept of authoritarianism: of a general predisposition to intolerance of difference. I managed to isolate and measure that predisposition in such a way as to avoid confounds with the attitudes and behaviors that we want to explain: a previously inescapable tautology that has plagued prior theory and research, reducing confidence in the value of the concept and the validity of empirical findings. I then developed and tested a general model – the authoritarian dynamic – that can explain a great deal of the variance across different varieties of intolerance with the interaction of just two variables. Via precisely designed and randomly assigned experimental manipulations, I have shown that a wide array of behaviors considered detrimental to liberal democracy are substantially influenced by fundamental predisposition to authoritarianism, interacting with changing environmental conditions of normative threat.
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- Information
- The Authoritarian Dynamic , pp. 325 - 336Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005