authoritarianism
Definition
Authoritarianism refers to a form of governance and associated ideology characterized by obedience to authority, concentration of political power, and the suppression of civil liberties, particularly for marginalized groups. At the individual level, it encompasses submissive attitudes toward authority figures and aggression toward those who violate perceived norms, dispositions that correlate with social dominance orientation and the endorsement of legitimizing myths that rationalize group-based hierarchy. In Russia, state propaganda has functioned to make authoritarian compliance psychologically coherent by framing the war in Ukraine as protective of conservation values such as security, conformity, and tradition, with right-wing authoritarianism included as a control variable when assessing the independent contribution of value-instantiating beliefs to pro-war attitudes. Collective memory also shapes susceptibility to authoritarian consolidation: selective glorification of the Soviet era and negative memories of 1990s democratization have reduced Russian citizens' appraisals of democratic backsliding as unjust, while in the United States, colorblind ignorance of racial history obscures a long domestic tradition of authoritarian governance directed at people of color.
Sources: Perez et al. (2026), Ponizovskiy et al. (2026), Lavie-Driver & Linden (2026)
Related Terms
- collective action (2 shared articles)
- colorblindness (1 shared article)
- critical history (1 shared article)
- democracy (1 shared article)
- racism (1 shared article)
- propaganda (1 shared article)
- Russia (1 shared article)
- Ukraine (1 shared article)
- values (1 shared article)
- value-instantiating beliefs (1 shared article)
- social identity (1 shared article)
- democratic backsliding (1 shared article)
- collective memory (1 shared article)
Applications
Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation
Social dominance orientation characterizes individuals who prefer social hierarchy and the dominance of some groups over others, and it operates alongside authoritarian attitudes to sustain authoritarian systems. In the Russian war-support study, right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation were both included as covariates, and value-instantiating belief profiles predicted pro-war attitudes and support intentions even after accounting for these dispositions. In the United States context, legitimizing myths function as the cultural mechanism through which intergroup hierarchies are maintained within systems that nominally present themselves as democratic.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026), Perez et al. (2026)
Authoritarianism and Collective Memory
Collective memory shapes whether populations perceive authoritarian governance as a threat or a legitimate order. In Russia, memories of Soviet-era stability and the economic chaos of the 1990s have been mobilized to lower appraisals of democratic backsliding as unjust, thereby reducing resistance to authoritarian consolidation. In the United States, colorblind collective memory that omits histories of racial violence leaves the public more receptive to authoritarian rhetoric, because it forecloses recognition that authoritarianism directed at people of color has been a structural feature of U.S. governance rather than a recent aberration.
Sources: Lavie-Driver & Linden (2026), Perez et al. (2026)
Authoritarianism and Colorblind Ideology
Colorblind ideology, by suppressing awareness of racist histories, creates cultural conditions that make authoritarian narratives more persuasive. Research linking authoritarian personality with endorsement of colorblindness and with beliefs that marginalized groups are too demanding indicates that these two phenomena reinforce each other at the individual level. When curricular omissions and low civic knowledge accompany colorblind ideology, the public loses the historical reference points that would allow it to recognize authoritarian patterns in contemporary governance.
Sources: Perez et al. (2026)
