American Authoritarianism in Black and White
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses November 2016 American Authoritarianism in Black and White Matthew C. MacWilliams University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the American Politics Commons, and the Other Political Science Commons Recommended Citation MacWilliams, Matthew C., "American Authoritarianism in Black and White" (2016). Doctoral Dissertations. 767. https://doi.org/10.7275/8988637.0 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/767 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AMERICAN AUTHORITARIANISM IN BLACK AND WHITE A Dissertation Presented by MATTHEW C. MACWILLIAMS Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2016 College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Political Science © Copyright by Matthew C. MacWilliams 2016 All rights reserved AMERICAN AUTHORITARIANISM IN BLACK AND WHITE A Dissertation Presented by MATTHEW C. MACWILLIAMS Approved as to style and content by: _____________________________________ Brian F. Schaffner, Chair _________________________________________________ Tatishe M. Nteta, Member _____________________________________ Linda M. Isbell, Member ______________________________________ Jane E. Fountain Department Head Department of Political Science DEDICATION Dedicated to Leah K. Glasheen: My partner and wife for three decades and counting! ABSTRACT AMERICAN AUTHORITARIANISM IN BLACK AND WHITE SEPTEMBER 2016 MATTHEW C. MACWILLIAMS, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by Professor Brian F. Schaffner How can African Americans be described simultaneously by political scientists as one of the most liberal and the most authoritarian groups in the United States? This conundrum frames the puzzle at the core of this dissertation. I argue that the political behavior of many African Americans is caught in a tug of war between their racial identity and their predisposition to authoritarianism. When the issue at hand engages African Americans’ authoritarian predisposition, authoritarianism can trump racial identity, produce attitudes that defy conventional wisdom, and dash the common theoretical assumption that African American political behavior is homogeneous. Counter to some of the accepted theories of political science, I demonstrate that African American authoritarians are less likely to agree their individual fate is linked to their racial identity, African American political behavior is not always more liberal than Whites, and African American worldviews and political behaviors, when viewed through the lens of authoritarianism, are quite often heterogeneous and differentiated. Based on these findings, I contend that any theory of authoritarianism must include African Americans in its analysis or at least present very persuasive arguments for their exclusion. The fact is that 65 years after Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson, and Sanford’s Authoritarian Personality was published, the study of authoritarianism finds itself once again at a crossroads. Authoritarianism was originally conceived as a universal personality trait whose scope recognized no cultural, racial, geographic, or political boundaries. But the central theories v of authoritarian activation and polarization today are predicated on data that exclude the most authoritarian racial group in America – African Americans – from analysis. It is time for political science to revise the contemporary research on authoritarianism to include African Americans. This is not an abstract exercise. It is a theoretical necessity. The result will not only improve the study of authoritarianism; it will also advance the broader inquiry that is political science as some of the discipline’s theoretical certainties become shibboleths, the collateral damage of an empirical inquiry into American Authoritarianism in Black and White. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. x LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ xiii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: AFRICAN AMERICAN AUTHORITARIANS .................. 1 African Americans: Liberal Authoritarians? ............................................. 2 Sixty-Five Years of Authoritarian Study ................................................. 12 Defining Authoritarianism, Identifying its Origins ................................. 19 Data and Models ...................................................................................... 28 The Chapters that Follow ......................................................................... 30 2 MEASURING AUTHORITARIANISM............................................................ 36 Measurement Approaches and Problems ................................................ 41 Hypothesis: The Authoritarian Scale Produced by Child-rearing Questions is “Cross-Racially Invalid” ............................................... 45 A Broader Inquiry of the Hypothesis that the Authoritarian Scale is Cross-Racially Invalid ....................................................................... 49 Theoretical Underpinnings........................................................... 49 Observable Consequences: Question Variance and Attitudinally Discrepant Behavior ......................................... 55 A Competing Hypothesis Concerning the Racial Validity of the Child-rearing Scale ........................................................................... 67 Differential Principles and Overt and Covert Racial Issues ........ 68 Authoritarian Activation .............................................................. 70 Nonauthoritarian Activation and Asymmetric Threats ................ 70 Authoritarian Activation and Asymmetric Threat ....................... 71 Chapter Summary .................................................................................... 72 3 AFRICAN AMERICANS: LIBERAL AUTHORITARIANS? ......................... 75 Prevalence of African American Authoritarians...................................... 79 Demographics of African American Authoritarians ................................ 83 Authoritarianism and African Americans’ Perception of Racial Identity .................................................................................... 90 vii Authoritarianism and Racial Identity: Racial Resentment........... 91 Authoritarianism and Racial Identity: Linked Fate ..................... 95 Chapter Summary .................................................................................... 99 4 AUTHORITARIANISM AND THREAT ........................................................ 101 The Effect of Threat on Authoritarianism ............................................. 103 Stigma and Authoritarianism ................................................................. 111 Asymmetric Material, Psychological, and Physical Threats and African American Authoritarianism ............................................... 114 Symmetric Threats and Authoritarianism .............................................. 121 Chapter Summary: The Prevalence of Black Authoritarians and Protective Authoritarian Shield ...................................................... 125 5 AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE AUTHORITARIAN WORLDVIEW ........................................................................................... 128 Authoritarians and Moral Traditionalism .............................................. 134 Authoritarians and Moral Choices ......................................................... 139 Authoritarians’ Trust of Governmental and Institutional Authority ...... 144 Authoritarians’ Contingent Support for Democratic Principles ............ 146 Empower a Strong Leader ......................................................... 148 Support Majority Tyranny ......................................................... 152 Support Dissent .......................................................................... 157 Authoritarianism and The Other ................................................ 161 Authoritarians’ Patriotic Pride and American Dreaming........... 165 Chapter Summary .................................................................................. 169 6 THE POLITICAL AND POLICY PREFERENCES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN AUTHORITARIANS ............................................................ 172 Authoritarians and Gays and Lesbians .................................................. 177 Authoritarians and Civil Liberties ......................................................... 184 Authoritarians and Immigration ............................................................. 187 Authoritarians and Emerging Threats: Muslims and Marijuana Legalization .................................................................................... 194 Authoritarians and Political Leaders and Leadership