Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Stealth Democracy: Authoritarianism And Democratic Deliberation, Peter Muhlberger

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

In Stealth Democracy, Hibbing and Theiss-Morse seek to show that much of the American public desires "stealth democracy"--a democracy run like a business with little deliberation or public input. The authors maintain that stealth democracy beliefs are largely reasonable preferences, and the public does not want and would react negatively to a more deliberative democracy. This paper introduces an opposing "authoritarian stealth democrats thesis" that suggests that stealth democracy beliefs may be driven by authoritarianism and a variety of related orientations including poor political perspective taking and low cognitive engagement. These orientations may be ameliorated through democratic deliberation. Hypotheses are …

A Tale Of Two Democrats: How Authoritarianism Divides The Democratic Party, Julie Wronski, Alexa Bankert, Karyn Amira, April Johnson, Lindsey Levitan

Faculty Articles

Authoritarianism has been predominantly used in American politics as a predictor of Republican identification and conservative policy preferences. We argue that this approach has neglected the role authoritarianism plays among Democrats and how it can operate within political parties regardless of their ideological orientation. Drawing from three distinct sets of data, we demonstrate the impact of authoritarianism in the 2016 Democratic Party’s primaries. Authoritarianism consistently predicts differences in primary voting among Democrats, particularly support for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. This effect is robust across various model specifications including controls for ideology, partisan strength, and other predispositions. These results highlight …

A Tale Of Two Democrats: How Authoritarianism Divides The Democratic Party, Julie Wronski, Alexa Bankert, Karyn Amira, April A. Johnson, Lindsey C. Levitan

Faculty Articles

Authoritarianism has been predominantly used in American politics as a predictor of Republican identification and conservative policy preferences. We argue that this approach has neglected the role authoritarianism plays among Democrats and how it can operate within political parties regardless of their ideological orientation. Drawing from three distinct sets of data, we demonstrate the impact of authoritarianism in the 2016 Democratic Party’s primaries. Authoritarianism consistently predicts differences in primary voting among Democrats, particularly support for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. This effect is robust across various model specifications including controls for ideology, partisan strength, and other predispositions. These results highlight …

Trickle-Down Authoritarianism & “Plaid Shirt Guy”, Evan Barrett

Highlands College

An editorial column by Evan Barrett which appeared in the following newspapers:

The Montana Post September 14, 2018

The Missoula Current September 13, 2018

Stealth Democracy: Authoritarianism And Democratic Deliberation, Peter Muhlberger

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

In Stealth Democracy, Hibbing and Theiss-Morse seek to show that much of the American public desires "stealth democracy"--a democracy run like a business with little deliberation or public input. The authors maintain that stealth democracy beliefs are largely reasonable preferences, and the public does not want and would react negatively to a more deliberative democracy. This paper introduces an opposing "authoritarian stealth democrats thesis" that suggests that stealth democracy beliefs may be driven by authoritarianism and a variety of related orientations including poor political perspective taking and low cognitive engagement. These orientations may be ameliorated through democratic deliberation. Hypotheses are …