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Working‐class authoritarianism: a re‐examination of the Lipset thesis
Author(s) -
DEKKER PAUL,
ESTER PETER
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1987.tb00884.x
Subject(s) - authoritarianism , wright , conceptualization , social class , working class , class (philosophy) , democracy , sociology , positive economics , social psychology , class consciousness , epistemology , political science , psychology , economics , law , politics , art , philosophy , artificial intelligence , computer science , art history
. Almost thirty years ago Lipset published his well‐known article ‘Democracy and working‐class authoritarianism’. His central thesis is that the working class more than other social classes, is predisposed to authoritarian and anti‐democratic attitudes. Several authors have criticized this thesis, especially by questioning Lipset's concept of democracy. Our approach is somewhat different in that in our opinion Lipset's conceptualization and measurement of social class is inaccurate and inappropriate. Using an empirical class model elaborated by Eric Olin Wright, our findings do not show that the working class is more authoritarian than other social classes. Education and not social class seems to be the most important factor. It is concluded that the measurement of social class is crucial to whether the theory of working‐class authoritarianism is empirically supported or not. Some theoretical consequences are briefly discussed.