What is Authoritarianism?

It’s a pretty common stereotype to think that most Donald Trump supporters are all rich, white males. But that isn’t entirely true. The true trait that could predict whether someone is actually a Trump supporter has nothing to do with race, income, or gender. It has to do with whether or not you are an authoritarian.

What is authoritarianism? Well dictionary.com describes authoritarianism as “favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom.” What this means, is that if you are an Authoritarian you favor a strong central government as opposed to one that lets the people make decisions.

A big part of being an authoritarian is that when a threat presents itself, authoritarians want a leader who will respond with force.

According to Vox.com, before someone could even imagine a person like Trump running, much less winning, people were still asking the question, “How do people come to adopt, in such large numbers and so rapidly, extreme political views that seem to coincide with fear of minorities and with the desire for a strongman leader?”

And so people started studying authoritarianism, not the dictators themselves but the psyche of the people who follow them. Karen Stenner, an American Politics researcher, wrote “The Authoritarian Dynamic” in 2005, just in time for her theory to come true.

According to Stenner’s theory, there is a group of people who hold these “authoritarian tendencies” and they get triggered when a major threat or frightening situation presents itself.

One researcher, Jonathan Haidt, told Vox that it’s as if someone activated a safety feature saying, “In case of moral threat, lock down the borders, kick out those who are different, and punish those who are morally deviant.”

Wondering if you may be an authoritarian? Well with just four simple questions you could find out. All you have to do is ask yourself what is a more important characteristic for a kid to have,

• independence or respect for their elders
• curiosity or good manners
• self-reliance or obedience
• being considerate or being well behaved

If you answered the second to 2 or more of these questions, then you might just be an authoritarian.

So why is it important to us? How is it going to effect the election?

Well it could very well lead to a Trump or Cruz presidency.

For example on both candidates’ websites, it can be seen that both talk about the threat of ISIS. On Ted Cruz’s website under his “Defend Our Nation” section of Issues he states that, “ISIS seeks to destroy our very way of life. We must defeat them. That starts by calling the enemy by its name – radical Islamic terrorism – and securing the border. Border security is national security.”

Donald Trump’s plan for ISIS is that he is going to, “bomb the shit out of them.”

As you can see both of these candidates are playing into the authoritarian voters by playing into fear, and threatening to use force. Both act like they are the only ones that can get the job done.

With the presidential election growing ever closer, the same question is on everyone’s mind, who is going to win? On the republican side perhaps Authoritarianism could be the deciding factor.

If you would like to learn more about Authoritarianism in American politics check out this: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism#whatis