The Authoritarian Predisposition and American Public Support for Social Security

• Author: David Macdonald
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211035187
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211035187

Political Research Quarterly

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129211035187

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Authoritarianism, an individual-level predisposition

that Stenner (2005, 17) defines as “a normative world-

view about the social value of obedience and confor-

mity” has wide-ranging consequences for American

mass politics (Hetherington and Weiler 2009; 2018).

Authoritarianism is strongly and broadly associated

with political intolerance and cultural conservatism,

that is, animus toward ethnic, religious, and sexual

minorities, and opposition to parties, candidates, poli-

cies that seek to advance the rights and power of such

groups (e.g., Barker and Tinnick 2006; Cizmar et al.

2014; Feldman and Stenner 1997; MacWilliams 2016b;

Velez and Lavine 2017). While we know a good deal

about the relationship between authoritarianism and

attitudes toward social/cultural issues, we know less

about the relationship between authoritarianism and

attitudes toward economic issues. Unlike socio-cul-

tural issues, for example, those involving race, immi-

gration, crime, abortion, and/or gay rights, all of which

center around threats/changes to the existing social

order, it is less obvious as to why we should expect a

relationship between authoritarianism and economic

issue attitudes.

On one hand, a positive relationship could result

from a need for certainty (Stenner 2005) and a desire to

mitigate the negative societal consequences associated

with underfunded social services, that is, unemployment,

poverty, and crime (e.g., Arikan and Sekercioglu 2019;

Malka, Lelkes, and Soto 2019; Rueda and Stegmueller

2016). On the other hand, a negative relationship could

result because economic conservatism is typically associ-

ated with the political right, a group that has a natural

appeal to people who score high in authoritarianism

(Hetherington and Weiler 2009). Authoritarians may also

oppose economic redistribution and social spending

because it is perceived to disproportionately benefit non-

conforming populations, for example, racial minorities

and/or non-English-speaking immigrants (e.g., Garand,

Xu and Davis 2017; Gilens 1999; Haselswerdt 2020;

Kinder and Sanders 1996; Winter 2006). Finally, a null

0

35187PRQXXX10.1177/10659129211035187Political Research QuarterlyMacdonald

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1Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

Corresponding Author:

David Macdonald, Florida State University, 600 W College Ave.,

Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.

Email: dmac91788@gmail.com

The Authoritarian Predisposition

and American Public Support

for Social Security

David Macdonald1

Abstract

Authoritarianism, an individual-level predisposition that favors security, conformity, and certainty, has been

powerfully linked with cultural conservatism and support for “strongman” politicians but weakly and inconsistently

linked with public opinion toward economic issues. In examining this latter relationship, past work has tended to

pose a dichotomous question, is authoritarianism associated with economic liberalism/conservatism or not? Here,

I diverge from this approach and argue that authoritarianism is associated with support for one specific program—

Social Security. I argue that the unique framing of this program, which emphasizes rule-following, certainty, and

deservingness, should resonate with authoritarian-minded individuals. I test this with survey data, primarily from

the American National Election Studies (ANES). Overall, I find a positive and substantively significant relationship

between authoritarianism and support for Social Security but not for other types of domestic social welfare spending.

These findings help us better understand the correlates of mass support for Social Security as well as the policy

consequences of authoritarianism. These findings also suggest that Social Security will likely remain popular in an

increasingly authoritarian Republican Party.

Keywords

Authoritarianism, Social Security, Public Opinion, United States

2022, Vol. 75(3) 918–929

Article