The Authoritarian Specter

by Bob Altemeyer

The bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, the emergence of militias and skinheads, the rise of the religious right, the attacks on Planned Parenthood clinics, the backlash against equal rights movements, the increase in poverty...these, according to Bob Altemeyer, are all versions of one story—the authoritarian personality in action. But aren't authoritarians Nazi types, kooks, the Klan? These are just the extreme examples, he argues. The Authoritarian Specter shows that many ordinary people today are psychologically disposed to embrace antidemocratic, fascist policies.

The book presents the latest results from a prize-winning research program on the authoritarian personality—a victory for the scientific method in the struggle to understand the worst aspects of ourselves. It connects for the first time the many ways authoritarianism undermines democracy. Many of our biggest problems, seemingly unrelated, have authoritarian roots. The scientific studies demonstrating this are extensive and thorough; their powerful findings are presented in a conversational, clear manner that engages readers from all backgrounds.

This is an important, timely work. It explains a growing movement to submit to a "man on horseback," to attack those who are different, to march in lockstep. Altemeyer reveals that these sentiments are strongly held even by many American lawmakers. These discoveries deserve careful attention in a presidential election year.

Genres: Psychology, Politics, Research, Political Science

374 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 1996

About the author

Robert "Bob" Altemeyer is a retired Professor of Psychology at the University of Manitoba. Born in St. Louis, he earned a B.S. at Yale University in 1962 and a Ph.D at Carnegie-Mellon in 1966.

He has written extensively on authoritarianism and refined the theory into the concept (and measure) of Right Wing Authoritarianism. His first book, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, was published in 1981 and reports the results of fifteen years of research on the 'pre-Fascist personality' in North American society.

Reviews

[Kathryn French · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book though nearly 20 years old is a must read for today. There is a lot of statistical math in it that I have forgotten how to use, but the writing is very engaging and it's easy to "read around" the math. Altemeyer has demonstrated in hard facts that the authoritarian personality is not unusual. Our current events back up his findings.

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The psychological school of analyzing fascism or authoritarianism generally is pretty outdated, I think. Even so, left-wing authoritarianism should also be fairly easy to find in Marxist–Leninist groups—it just seemed Altemeyer gave up at a certain point.

[Karen M Spence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prohibition was flawlessly designed to increase drug use, atomize society, impoverish citizens, spread illness, increase unemployment, destroy lives, imprison productive people, subvert democracy, shred the Constitution, empower the ignorant & brutal, facilitate mass surveillance, destroy the educational system, hold people in ignorance, manipulate and censor the media, and enrich a tiny puritanical minority of mega-millionaires and corporate bosses. Sadly, it has succeeded in all these objectives. If you support prohibition, then you're a black market profiteer, a terrorist, a corrupt politician, a sadomoralist, a nanny-state socialist, or a fake-conservative. ~ Robert Altemeyer

This book, via a coherent body of science, is absolutely brilliant in helping the reader understand why people are predisposed to embracing antidemocratic, fascist policies and submitting to politicians eager to enforce them. I recently reread it after the results of the Turkish elections, to better understand the psychology behind mass self harm.