Trends in Authoritarianism

Abstract

This study reports on changes in the attitudes of authoritarianism and dogmatism among adolescents in West Germany and in the United States over a 33-year period. Surveys conducted in the United States in 1978 and in West Germany in 1979 are compared with surveys carried out in these countries in 1945 and in the 1960s. The survey instrument was a questionnaire composed of nine subscales, including items from the California F-Scale and from the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale. It focused on authoritarianism in relation to the state, the family, the school, and society in general. A significant decrease in authoritarianism scale scores over time was noted in each country. The changes were greater in West Germany than in the United States whereas German adolescents were far more authoritarian than their American contemporaries in 1945, American adolescents are somewhat more authoritarian than those in West Germany today, according to the scale scores. These findings also held when the analyses were repeated separately for each socioeconomic level.