Authoritarian Followers
by Authoritarian followers and Authoritarian leaders are very different. Authoritarian followers tend to rank high on three behavioural aspects: Submission to Authority, aggression towards those named as targets by Authority, and Conventionalism: strong adherence to the traditions and norms seen to be endorsed by society and its established authorities, and a belief that everyone must adhere to these norms. There are Authoritarians with Leftist political views (certain groups of extreme Socialists come to mind) but measures of Authoritarianism tend to correlate with right wing politics and many psychologists think Authoritarianism is a predominantly right wing phenomenon. The majority of Religious fundamentalists are Authoritarian followers and almost every statement true of Authoritarian followers is true of Religious Fundamentalists, which supports the claim that Organised Religions are intrinsically fascist no matter how valid the insight of the founder.
“A government should only allow freedom of expression so long as it does not threaten law and order.”
and
“Parents should first of all be gentle and tender with their children,”
“Parents should first of all be firm and uncompromising with their children; spare the rod and spoil the child.”
Submission
Authoritarian followers tend to be very submissive to Authority, once that Authority is accepted. Milgram’s famous experiments which showed that volunteers will do appalling things if ordered by an accepted authority, the Nazi atrocities committed “just following Orders” and the more recent slaying of more than 50 Journalists in the Philippines, where the police involved in the killing claimed they were merely following orders indicate this. You can add your own examples.
Another example is Clydeen Tomanio of Chickamuauga, Georgia, who was quoted on a CNN.com report dated September 7, 2006 as saying, “There are some people, and I’m one of them, that believe George Bush was placed where he is by the Lord. I don’t care how he governs, I will support him.”
An excellent example of authoritarian submission in government came from Steven Bradbury, the Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department, on July 11, 2006. The Supreme Court had recently ruled that the Pentagon’s use of special military commissions to try suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay violated the Geneva Conventions and the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice. Bradbury was asked by Senator Leahy of Vermont to say whether President Bush was right in his assessment of the situation, Bradbury replied, “The president is always right.”
The psychological metric for authoritarianism is the Right Wing Authoritarianism scale where “Right” refers to a psychological trait one which endorses submissio to established authority, not a political ideology. However when a test was administered to poltiicians of both main US parties republicans scored nearly 40 points higher than Democrats. Also in the UK High Authoritarianism was found to characterise the British Conservative party.
Religion
Religious fundamentalists tend to score very highly on Authoritarianism, a solid majority being Authoritarian followers. In fact almost everything that can be said about Authoritarians can be said about those who score highly on Religious Fundamentalism. While these two traits are intertwined the likelihood is that Authoritarianism is more basic ( There are Authoritarian Atheists as dogmatic as the Fundamentalists).
Conventionalism and Aggression
As weel as being submissive to authority Authoritarians believe everyone should follow the norms and customs decreed by authority, or in the absence of a formal decree, by tradition and culture.
Authoritarians get a lot of their ideas about how people ought to act from their religion, and tend to belong to fundamentalist religions that make it crystal clear what they think is right and wrong. This is as true in the US today as it was in the Soviet Union and in Saudi Arabia and Israel.
It follows from this that Authoritarian followers are more susceptible to peer pressure than others, though I am not aware of any experiments to validate this.
Conventionalism is paired with agression towards other groups, including those of a different colour, religion, ethnicity, political view point or sexual preference (Authoritarians and non-Authoritarians do combine in condemning some sexual preferences, the difference being Authoritarians seem to condemn the person as evil and needing punishment while others view them as sick and try to find a cure). At the same time they can be generous and supportive to their own.
The wrap
This is a big topic with only the surface skimmed here. The following annotated statement from Altemeyer’s survey shows how to appeal to Authoritarians and summarises their characteristics
“Our country desperately needs a mighty leader (authoritarian submission) who will do what has to be done to destroy (authoritarian aggression) the radical new ways and sinfulness that are ruining us” (conventionalism)
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