Authoritarianism and Its Friends
On the Appeal of a Form of Rule
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Authoritarianism is on the rise. Support for authoritarian parties and their leaders has grown. Even the dictatorships in Russia and Belarus have the backing of a majority of the population. Theodor W. Adorno and Erich Fromm worked out an explanation for the appeal of authoritarian rule that remains valid to this day: they emphasized the significance of individual and collective dispositions. Newer approaches to explaining this appeal highlight the ambivalences of freedom and the loss of control within globalized capitalism, or they focus on politicized emotions, such as anger and resentment, which are fueled by a lack of recognition and lead people to support authoritarian politics.
(Osteuropa 1-2/2026, pp. 11–21)