"To Have a Strong Leader Is Important!" Analysis of Authoritarianism in Croatian Society from 1999 to 2018 Cover Image

"Važno je imati moćnog vođu!" Analiza autoritarnosti u hrvatskom društvu od 1999. do 2018. godine
"To Have a Strong Leader Is Important!" Analysis of Authoritarianism in Croatian Society from 1999 to 2018

Author(s): Krunoslav Nikodem
Subject(s): Government/Political systems, Politics and society, Demography and human biology, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Sociology of Religion
Published by: Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar
Keywords: authoritarianism; Croatian society; strong leader; education; importance of God; trust in Church;

Summary/Abstract: The primary goal of this paper is the analysis of authoritarianism in Croatian society which is based on the results from the European Values Study. In a theoretical sense, we are following Bob Altemeyer’s concept of authoritarianism, which is defined as the combination of three attitudinal clusters–authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression and conventionalism (Altemeyer, 1988). The analysis is divided into two parts. In the first part we analyse separately eight particles which comprise our authoritarian construct with the basic socio-demographic characteristics for the year 2018. In the second part we use the authoritarianism index as criterion for the three-predictor model (socio-demographic characteristics, religiosity and trust). On the basic level, the results show an increase of those who consider that having a strong leader is good and that it would be a good thing to have greater respect for authority in the near future. Further analysis shows that a lower level of education, the importance of God in life, and trust in the Church are the most important predictors for authoritarianism in Croatian society.

  • Issue Year: 28/2019
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 391-410
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Croatian