...Political scientists classify an authoritarian by having no elections or referendums and citizens do not participate in the states decision examples of authoritarian regimes are a one man dictatorship, military regimes or regimes that follow the ideology of political parties. To some degree, all states exercise authority over their citizens. Although some states are more responsive to their citizens’ wants and needs as to how authority and violence should be managed and there are some less responsive. Authoritarianism is defined as a form of government that has a strong power and has limited political freedoms. One ruler or a small group of leaders can either rule an authoritarian system, which may hold elections but citizens don’t have any...
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...Psychology 305: Psychology of Personality Activity 3. |Key Terms | | |Aggregation and Reliability | | |Cross-Situational Consistency | | |Situationalist Critique | | |Empirical Objections | | |Theoretical Objections | | |Cross-Cultural Consistency | | |Etic Approach | | |Emic Approach | | |Temporal Stability | | |1. Rank Order Stability | | |Personality Coherence | ...
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...Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience. (12 Marks) The dispositional explanations for obedience are as follows, the authoritarian personality, in which a person is more likely to obey those in authority and dismiss of those who are considered inferior in a hierarchy. Like Milgram, Theodor Adorno wished to understand the anti-Semitism of the Holocaust and found that on the basis of their research, high levels of obedience were due to a psychological disorder, and therefor tried to find the causes of it in the personality of an individual. Adorno et al. (1950) conducted a study to investigate the causes of the obedient personality in 2000 middle-class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes. As such, they developed several scales in which to investigate this, including the F-Scale, used to measure the authoritarian personality. An example of an item from the F-Scale is, “Nobody ever learned anything important except through suffering.”. Consequently, Adorno found that those who scored higher on the scale tended to have authoritarian personalities identifying with those with authority and being generally contemptuous for people below them. In an effort to identify the origin of the authoritarian personality, Adorno concluded that it was developed during childhood as a result of harsh parenting. This parenting involved strict disciplining, high standards, and expectations of absolute loyalty – even categorising with ‘conditional love’ where...
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...to end threats by outsiders and persons "not like us." It seeks order and stability at all costs. It subscribes to a command-and-obey or "top down" or hierarchical mentality. This is directly opposed to a democratic or "horizontal" mentality, characterized by openmindness, cooperation, and respect for others as equals. In the article, “The Rise of American Authoritarianism,” Amanda Taub makes three claims: First, Donald Trump is backed by authoritarians who feel threatened by social, political, and economic changes in the U.S.; Second, the GOP’s appeal to traditionalism and law-and-order has attracted “a vast and previously bipartisan population of Americans with authoritarian tendencies,” insuring there will be more Trump-like candidates in the future; and lastly, since ”Democrats, by contrast, have positioned themselves as the party of civil rights, equality, and social progress…” they can be absolved of any charge of harboring authoritarians. Furthermore, this article states that Trump supporters are rigid, fear-triggered, authoritarian personalities - it's attempting to pathologize a political viewpoint. And that itself is a dangerous step towards another form of authoritarianism. Convincing yourself that a group is irrational and driven by baser instincts like fear allows you to discredit and marginalize the person, without considering the ideas and viewpoints they espouse. It can create a group of "dangerous others" in your mind, and makes it easier to justify careful monitoring...
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...being asked as to why some people where prone to such levels of violence and hate in the name of political ideology. The ‘Authoritarian Personality’ was a concept suggested in 1950 by German sociologist Theodor Adorno and colleagues following their research identifying the personality traits believed to allow an individual to be bias towards and follow a fascist ideology. Although initially met with great excitement, over time the authoritarian personality alone was seen, by many psychologists, as not sufficient to explain the potential for extreme prejudices and its popularity declined. In the early 1980’s Canadian psychologist Bob Altemeyer revived the interest in authoritarianism following revision of the original work done by Adorno et al. Altemeyer was interested in right wing political ideology only just as Adorno et al had been, both excluding the potential authoritarianism personality characteristics associated with communism from their research. (McAvoy, J. 2012). As a result of his research Altemeyer was able to address the methodological shortcomings of the original work and propose a revised concept of authoritarianism. Similarly both bodies of research utilized standardised personality questionnaires as a method to measure beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of the participants. Although the questions in Altemeyer’s Right Wing Authoritarian scale (RWA scale) differed from the Fascism Scale (F-Scale) of Adorno et al, each used a numerical scale against a fixed choice...
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...Prejudice Checkpoint Genna Lee psy/285 6/15/2014 Prejudice Checkpoint Prejudice comes from an unequal status and from other social sources including learned values and attitudes. Family has that largest impact of learning prejudice. Parents teach their children who and why they should or should not like or trust someone. Many other elements play a role in prejudices attitudes, society, emotions and cognitive processes all influence prejudice as well. Society confirms prejudicial attitudes in different ways. You have the authoritarian personality, religion, conformity and aggression. The authoritarian personality is that those who tend to hostility to a particular group usually shows the same hostility to all groups they see as different. Religion can play a role in prejudice as well because in almost every country leaders invoke religion in order to sanctify the current order of things (Exploring Social Psychology, ch.23, pg.259). An example of this is when the vote for gay and lesbian rights come into play be it adoption, marriage or tax equality you often hear the Bible verses of Leviticus spoken as an example of why it should not be accepted. Those verses are Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination" (Leviticus ch.18 verse 22). The other scripture you often hear quoted is "If a man lies with another male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their...
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...Discuss the principal feature of democratic government and non-democratic government. Give an example of each. The principal feature of democratic governments is that the power resides with the people. In a democratic system, governments are established and updated through free and fair electoral processes. Through these processes, the populace elects representatives from competing political parties. The chosen (elected) representatives govern on behalf of the people who elect them. Further, elected representatives, and in turn governments operate under the same rules of law. One example of a democratic nation is Canada. In Canada, the country’s people are represented in the House of Commons by 308 members of parliament (MP). The MPs represent constituencies that are determined based on population density. This system is ideal because large cities, with large populations have many delegates that can represent the many different opinions of the populace. The united states have a similar system whereby the people are represented by elected congress members who act on their behalf in the US government assembly. Although these are important elements in characterizing a democracy, they are obsolete without the active participation of the populace. The citizens of a democracy have an intrinsic responsibility to sustain the democracy. Firstly, people must actively participate in political affairs by staying well-informed about political issues, supporting...
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...enough to overcome darkness", meaning if we have peace and equality we can overcome the obstacles ahead. However, agreeing to Aung San Suu Kyi's claim in the article Towards a True Refuge, " The greatest threat to global security is not economics but unfair, authoritarian government, because we can't blame the economy for the countries issues. We have to hold the government ans it's leader responsible. We can't have prosperity if they can't move beyond thier self- interests. To begin with, The greatest threat to global security is not economics but unfair, authoritarian governments. As Suu Kyi states in the article, Towards a True Refuge, in lines 4-9, "The greatest threats to global security today came not from the economic deficenes of the poorest nations but from religious, racial (or tribal) and political dissensions raging...". This reveals that we can't blame a country for their economics but can be blame for their religious, racial and political differences; forgetting how to treat people as humans. Suu Kyi also states in the article in lines 21-23" decades of authoritarian rule may have achieve uniformity and obediance but could not achieve long-term harmony or stability". This shows that, yes, while the authoritarian rule have maintained order, they...
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...In 1956 three professors of communication-Fred S. Siebert, Theodore Peterson and Wilbur Schramm-brought out their Four Theories of the Press which went a long way in establishing a typology in the minds of journalism educators and students. Siebert, Peterson and Schramm discuss journalism philosophy presenting four theories (or concepts): 1. the authoritarian theory, 2. the libertarian theory, 3. the communist theory and 4 the social responsibility theory. Very briefly, here are the main characterstics of each of these theories. Authoritarian: The state, as the highest expression of institutionalized structure, supersedes the individual and makes it possible for the individual to acquire and develop a stable and harmonious life Mass communication, then, supports the state and the government in power so that total society may advance and the state may be viable and attain its objectives. The State (the elite that runs the state) directs the citizenry, which is not considered competent and interested enough to make critical political decisions. One man or an elite group is placed in a leadership role. As the group or person controls society generally it (or he or she) also controls the mass media since they are recognized as vital instruments of social control. The mass media, under authoritarianism, are educators and propagandists by which the power elite exercise social control. Generally the media are privately owned, although the leader or his elite group may own units in...
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...one being completely democratic and ten being completely authoritarian, the Bolivian government would be near a 4. The reason being is that the Bolivian government, in theory, is democratic. Their government is organized very much like the United States’, with a separation of powers between the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary branches. Citizens directly elect the President, who is currently President Evo Morales. “All senators and 53 deputies are elected by proportional representation, and 70 deputies are elected in individual districts” (Freedom House). There also are differing political parties within the country. Another supporting democratic point is that the Bolivian government, according to the CIA...
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...Authoritarian elections are frequently assumed as a monolithic, uncommon singularity as come claims that it is mismatching with unchanging autocracy. Nonetheless, a cursory inspection of the authoritarian elections around the planet discloses a very dissimilar depiction. Elections might have several benefits even in authoritarian countries. Elites and even small society groups can join the assembly; people can have the voice to governmental decisions, and the elections that held under the authoritarian regimes will eventually lead into democracies. So, in this essay, it will be stated that how the elections in authoritarian countries would be a better phenomenon. Numerous academics states that initial role of the elections...
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...in 18th century, is a theory in political science that prevents armed conflict among democracies. The Democratic Peace indicates that democratic states will not get into war with each other; they have a separate peace On the other hand, it is possible for these democratic states to go to war with authoritarian regimes or stateless people. Scholars and academicians believe that democracies find an alternative way to get into a war such as compromises and arbitrations. It has been examined that democratic states have not engaged in a war with one another. Inherently, the number of democratic states expected to rise in the upcoming years of 18th century. As there are more democratic states, as there will be less armed conflicts among each other, which is going to lead the world to a better international system. It has been observed that democracies do get into armed conflict however not with one another; they usually get into war with non-democratic states. It is a significant observation. Democratic Peace Theory is consisted from Immanuel Kant’s “Perpetual Peace”. Immanuel Kant claims that peace is a reasonable outcome of the interaction of states with a republican form of government. The main idea behind Immanuel Kant’s “Perpetual Peace” is that ‘Democracy’ must be spread and made a universal system, in order to create peace amongst the states. This idea of Democratic Peace was discovered over 200 years by Immanuel Kant; however it only entered in to force in the early 1980s and...
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...experienced a wave of Democracy, dubbed as the “Third Democratic Wave” (Huntington,1). The fast speed and large expansive spread of a Democratic regime influenced one-party governments to transition to a multi-party participant regime. An example of a transition from a single party regime to a democracy was in Poland beginning in 1988, with the start of the demise of the Soviet Union. The Third Wave of Democracy, compromised of similar motives of transition among the countries that were affected. For example, the weakening authoritarian regimes as democratic ideas were strengthening and spreading, an economic growth that were global during the ‘60s, a cultural shift which derived from the transformation in the Catholic...
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...Abstract National League for Democracy shocks the Myanmar’s government by winning the 1990 election, and has become the symbol of democratization hope for the people ever since. This paper will reveal what have the NLD truly accomplished during the 1990-2010 period in the term of Myanmar’s democratization, and how effective it is as an opposition side. Chapter 1: Introduction Background Democracy has become a justification for governmental systems to lead themselves into good governance. It is believed that democracy is a part of the best governmental system, which can maintained its growth and stability by positive and pro-active attitude from its people (Rosyada, Jamil. 2005:113). This led to government openness by check and balances mechanism, which open the doors into good governance. The trend has finally reached Southeast Asia region in second half of the twentieth, thanks to third world democratization wave (1974-1990) classified by Samuel Huntington. Some of the nations are having dynamics to face democratization persistence to reduce centralistic power from the authoritarian. They are, to say: Indonesia, Filipina and Thailand. While Myanmar are having the exact opposite when their civilian government being overpowered by the military. However, the development of democracy culture in Myanmar is still highly hoped by its people, shown by the 1990 election where National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s Opposition party, won. Although the result of the election was...
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...door for violent authoritarian military regimes, and the economic insecurity has a cyclic effect in that it limits education and prevents the countries from utilizing their natural resources in order to tap in to the global market and lift themselves from poverty. "More than 1.3 billion in developing countries live in poverty; 600 million are extremely poor." Citizens of economically developing countries have no way to generate income, and therefore can not afford food, water, and access to healthcare. Many live in shanties in the slums, and have to trek huge distances just for access to drinkable water. The average lifespan is short due to malnutrition, and many die of diseases which modern healthcare could easily treat if they could afford it. Their position as economically disadvantaged disallows them access to what the UN considers basic human rights, the things most fundamental to the life and existence of a human being. More than 1.3 billion lack access to safe drinking water, more than 800 million have inadequate food supplies, and 1 billion live in the slums. Free market capitalism, which in the economic system that increases the GDP of a nation most rapidly, usually comes with democracy. However, in order to achieve stable democracy, civilian control is a necessity. The anarchy and poor living conditions caused by the financial instability of developing countries makes military intervention common. These coups, which obtain control of government or simply establish...
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