PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
Krauss / ROMANIAN AUTHORITARIANISM
Romanian Authoritarianism
10 Years After Communism
Stephen W. Krauss
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Four studies were conducted examining authoritarianism in
Romania. It was found that authoritarianism could be measured
reliably and was consistently related to political attitudes,
political support, and prejudice. More specifically, authoritarianism
was positively related to support for communist principles
of distributive justice and a communist economy. However,
authoritarianism was unrelated to actual support for the socialist
left, positively related to support for the noncommunist, fascist
right, and negatively related to support for the pro-Western
centrist parties. The strength and consistency of the findings
more than 10 years after the fall of communism suggest that
authoritarianism's relationship with communism in Eastern
Europe might be more resistant to change than originally
thought and may extend on to future generations. Implications
for current authoritarianism theory are discussed.
More than five decades ago, Adorno, FrenkelBrunswik,
Levinson, and Sanford (1950) introduced the
concept of authoritarianism to help predict and explain
ethnocentrism and antidemocratic attitudes. Since that
time, the strong adherence of authoritarians to
right-wing political ideology has been well documented
in the West (Altemeyer, 1988, 1996; McFarland, Ageyev,
& Djintcharadze, 1996; Meloen, 1993). However, there
has been some debate as to the generalizability of these
findings outside of the Western World (Altemeyer, 1988,
1996; Stone & Smith, 1993).
The issue of communist, or left-wing, authoritarians
arose shortly after the publication of The Authoritarian
Personality. Shils (1954) was the first to argue, although
without empirical support, that Soviet communists
appeared to display all of the characteristics of authoritarians
in the West with the exception of their adherence
to a seemingly left-wing political ideology. Shils then
equated Soviet communists with Western communists
and became one of the earliest believers in the existence
of a neglected species of left-wing authoritarian (Stone &
Smith, 1993).
Rokeach (1956, 1960) also objected to the alignment
of authoritarianism with right-wing ideology. His proposed
alternative, the Dogmatism scale, was presented as
a measure of "general authoritarianism" that was not
confounded with political ideology. However, later studies
have generally found that dogmatism is highly related
to authoritarianism and, similar to authoritarianism, is
more frequent among adherents to right-wing political
ideologies (for a review, see Stone, 1980).
Altemeyer (1988, 1996) recently tried to lay this issue
to rest in his sophisticated extension and reformulation
of Adorno et al.'s (1950) conception of authoritarianism.
Altemeyer (1981, 1988, 1996) suggested that
authoritarianism has three major components: aggression,
submission, and conventionality, all of which also
were identified by Adorno et al. (1950). Using this conceptualization
of authoritarianism, Altemeyer (1988,
1996) tried to solve the debate by equating "conventional"
and "right-wing" and then arguing that what is
right wing (conventional) depends on the culture of reference
but that authoritarianism should be highly
related to adherence to whatever is classified as right
wing (conventional). Therefore, Russian authoritarians
should be expected to be communists and American
authoritarians should be capitalists, which is exactly what
the vast majority of studies have found (for a review, see
Altemeyer, 1996; McFarland, 2000).
1255
Author's Note: The author would like to thank Bob Altemeyer, John
Duckitt, Bart Duriez, Ralph Hood, Sam McFarland, and Paul Watson
for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. The
author also would like to thank Ramona Krauss, Andreea Lucaciu,
and Magda Mateescu for their help in data collection and translations.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed
to Stephen W. Krauss, 1608 E. Frontier Lane, Olathe, KS 66062; e-mail:
stephenkrauss@hotmail.com.
PSPB, Vol. 28 No. 9, September 2002 1255-1264
 2002 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
THE PRESENT RESEARCH
The general aim of the present research was to investigate
the relationships between authoritarianism, political
ideology, and prejudice in Eastern Europe just over a
decade after the fall of the Berlin wall. Romania was chosen
because it appeared typical of Eastern Europe both
politically and economically. Romania is a fledgling
democracy that is currently facing a choice between
attempting to join the European Union (EU) and
strengthening its ties with Russia. In addition, similar to
most of the East, the period after the revolution has been
extremely difficult for the common citizen, with rampant
inflation and currency devaluation lowering the
standard of living to, or near to, third-world conditions.
Four interrelated studies were conducted. The first
attempted to set the foundation for the modern study of
authoritarianism in Romania through the construction
of a reliable measure of Romanian authoritarianism.
The second attempted to validate the measure of Romanian
authoritarianism through an examination of its
relationships with prejudice. The third examined the
relationship between authoritarianism and support for
communism and capitalism. The fourth examined the
relationships between authoritarianism and support for
specific politicians and political parties.
STUDY 1: CONSTRUCTION OF A MEASURE OF
ROMANIAN AUTHORITARIANISM
Psychological research was rarely conducted in Romania
during communist rule. Under Ceausescu's brutal
leadership, psychology was viewed as a potentially subversive
element to his reign. Psychology was thus
removed from the universities and was all but nonexistent
in other sectors of society. Despite the recent rebirth
of psychology in Romania, no research has ever examined
Romanian authoritarianism. Therefore, the first
study was conducted to construct a reliable measure of
Romanian authoritarianism.
Method
PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE
The 84 (23 men and 61 women) participants in this
study were employed by a hospital in Bucharest or were
family or close friends of these employees. Participants
averaged 33 years old (SD = 14.01 years). As part of a
larger project, participants were contacted by a member
of the hospital staff and asked to voluntarily complete
the questionnaire for $1.10 (about a third of a day's
wage). Full confidentiality and anonymity were assured,
although participants were paid contingent on their
return of the completed questionnaire to the
administrator.
MEASURES
Because of its well-established validity, Altemeyer's
(1996) Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale was
used to develop a measure of Romanian authoritarianism.
Because it seemed possible that Romanian authoritarians
would tend to be atheists, the 1996 RWA scale was
modified by the removal of all mentions of religion, God,
and other related concepts. (Unless otherwise mentioned,
all scales used in this series of studies were modified
in a similar fashion.) One item about the virtues of
atheists (Item 8) could not be meaningfully modified
and was removed. Three other items (Items 11, 13, and
16) did not seem valid as measures of Romanian authoritarianism
and also were removed. One item from both
McFarlanďs 1996 Russian Authoritarianism scale
(Item 27) and Altemeyer's 1982 version of the RWA scale
(Item 13) were added to make a 32-item response set balanced
scale.
All measures presented in this article were translated
from English to Romanian and then back-translated
from Romanian to English by independent translators.
Responses to all measures were made along a 5-point
scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).
Results
The RWA scale required significant modifications.
The 32-item RWA scale included 5 items that failed to
correlate positively with the rest of the scale.1
These
items were removed along with 5 additional items that
were lowering the reliability. Eight reverse-scored items
were then removed to balance the scale for response sets,
which left 14 items with a respectable alpha of .79. Thirteen
of the 14 retained items came from Altemeyer's
1996 RWA scale (Items 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 15, 19, 23, 25, 26,
27, and 34; pp. 13-14) and one item came from
McFarlanďs 1996 Russian RWA scale (Item 27; p. 217).
Some of the top items were "the only way our country can
get through the crisis ahead is to get back to our traditional
values, put some tough leaders in power, and
silence the troublemakers spreading bad ideas" and "the
real keys to the `good life' are obedience, discipline, and
sticking to the straight and narrow." An analysis of the
content of the retained items did not suggest that the
construct was significantly narrowed in meaning in comparison
to the original.2
A principal components analysis with oblique
(promax) rotation was then conducted on the two components
(eigenvalues of 3.79 and 3.59) that were
revealed by a scree plot test. The first component consisted
of all seven pro-trait items and the second component
consisted of all seven con-trait items. This seemed
to indicate that, with the exception of response set
biases, the newly constructed Romanian authoritarianism
scale was essentially unidimensional.
1256 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
Discussion
The 14-item Romanian Authoritarianism scale
seemed to display adequate internal reliability and content
validity in this relatively small, select sample. The
structure of the measure also seemed to be adequately
unidimensional because response-set-based, two-factor
solutions similar to the one found in this study are sometimes
obtained with Altemeyer's RWA scale in the West
(cf. Tarr & Lorr, 1991). In short, the 14-item authoritarianism
scale appeared to be adequate for use as a measure
of authoritarianism in Romania.
STUDY 2: AUTHORITARIANISM AND PREJUDICE
Study 1 constructed a reliable measure of Romanian
authoritarianism. However, no study has yet examined
how authoritarianism in Romania relates to its most
important correlate: generalized prejudice. Generalized
prejudice, which Adorno et al. (1950) labeled
"ethnocentrism," is a prejudice against all outgroups,
whether they are ethnic, sexual, or even fictional (cf.
Hartley, 1946). Authoritarianism was developed by
Adorno et al. (1950) to predict generalized prejudice
and is still regarded, more than 50 years after its initial
development, as one of the best predictors of generalized
prejudice (Altemeyer, 1998; McFarland, 2001).
Thus, any valid measure of authoritarianism should be
significantly related to a wide variety of specific prejudices
as well as generalized prejudice. Study 2 was
designed to establish the validity of the newly constructed
measure of Romanian authoritarianism
through an examination of its relationships with prejudice
in Romania.
Method
PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE
The 197 participants in this study were drawn from
two different samples. The first (the dormitory sample)
consisted of 97 residents of student housing (30 men, 65
women, 2 unknown) who had agreed, as part of a larger
project, to complete the questionnaire for a small
amount of money (approximately 35 cents). The second
(the cafeteria sample) consisted of 100 students (50 men
and 50 women) that had agreed to voluntarily fill out the
questionnaire on the spot when approached by a student
administrator in a campus cafeteria. The participants
from both samples were students at a large state university
in Bucharest and were 21 years old on average
(approximate SD = 2). All participants responded anonymously
and were assured of confidentiality.
MEASURES
Both samples completed the 14-item Romanian
Authoritarianism scale from Study 1, a six-item prejudice
against Arabs scale (e.g., "Most Arabs smell"), a six-item
anti-Semitism scale (e.g., "You can't trust Jews"), and a
six-item sexism scale (e.g., "Important decisions should
be left to men") that was partially derived from the
Old-Fashioned Sexism scale (Swim, Aikin, Hall, &
Hunter, 1995). In addition, the dormitory sample completed
a six-item prejudice against Hungarians scale
(e.g., "Most Hungarians are intentionally mean"), an
eight-item prejudice against Roma scale (e.g., "Gypsies
should be locked up to protect society"), and an
eight-item prejudice against homosexuals scale (e.g.,
"Besides their sexual preferences, homosexuals are just
like everyone else") based on Altemeyer's (1988, 1996)
Attitudes Toward Homosexuals scale. Because valid measures
of Romanian prejudice have not yet been published,
all measures of prejudice were developed for this
project.3
All measures contained equal numbers of proand
con-trait items. Responses were made along a
5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).
Results
As Table 1 shows, every measure of prejudice exhibited
satisfactory levels of internal reliability in both samples,
with all measures having coefficient alphas more
than .70 and all but two (the prejudice against Arabs and
Krauss / ROMANIAN AUTHORITARIANISM 1257
TABLE 1: Descriptive Statistics for Measures in Study 2
Dorm Sample (n = 97) Cafeteria Sample (n = 100)
M SD M SD
Authoritarianism .80 2.76 .50 .81 2.49 .56
Prejudice-Arabs .76 2.84 .49 .77 2.79 .61
Anti-Semitism .72 2.66 .49 .81 2.54 .71
Sexism .81 1.90 .69 .88 2.01 .88
Prejudice-Hungarians .86 2.89 .78
Attitudes-homosexuals .88 2.75 .83
Prejudice-Roma .83 3.31 .65
General Prejudice-3 .81 2.47 .40 .87 2.45 .57
General Prejudice-6 2.72 .47
anti-Semitism scales) having alphas of at least .80. The
Romanian Authoritarianism scale also had a satisfactory
level of internal reliability in both samples, with an alpha
of .80 in the dormitory sample and .81 in the cafeteria
sample.
A principal components analysis conducted on the
sexism, prejudice against Arabs, and anti-Semitism
scales yielded only one component with an eigenvalue
greater than 1.0 in both samples. Because the cafeteria
sample only completed these three scales, they were
averaged together to form a measure of generalized prejudice
(Generalized Prejudice-3) for both samples. An
addition principal components analysis on the six prejudice
scales from the dormitory sample also yielded only
one component with an eigenvalue greater than one.
These six scales also were averaged together to form a
more complete measure of generalized prejudice (Generalized
Prejudice-6).
The correlations between RWA and the prejudice
measures are presented in Table 2. As expected, every
measure of prejudice was moderately to strongly related
to authoritarianism in both samples.
Discussion
As in previous work in Eastern Europe (for a review,
see McFarland, 2000) and the West (for a review, see
Altemeyer, 1996), authoritarianism was found to be significantly
related to generalized prejudice and to each of
the specific prejudices examined. This indicates that in
Romania, as in the West, knowing how authoritarian
someone is tells a lot about their level of prejudice
against all outgroups. These findings also provide some
indication of the validity of the 14-item measure of
Romanian authoritarianism developed in Study 1.
STUDY 3: AUTHORITARIANISM AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY
Study after study (cf. McFarland, Ageyev, & AbalakinaPapp,
1992; McFarland et al., 1996) and theorist after
theorist (cf. Adorno et al., 1950; Altemeyer, 1996) has
stressed that conventionalism is a core component of
authoritarianism. Altemeyer (1988, 1996) also has suggested
that the alignment of authoritarianism with
"right-wing" ideology is justifiable as long as "right wing"
means "conservative" or "conventional." However, what
is classified as conservative and conventional depends
on the culture of reference. For example, Altemeyer
(1996) and McFarland et al. (1992) have both shown
that authoritarianism strongly predicts support for capitalism
and rejection of communism for Americans,
although the precise opposite pattern was true for Soviets
directly after the cold war. Yet, it is unclear what
authoritarians should endorse in a situation such as currently
exists in most of Eastern Europe, where the once
conventional values are now seen as obsolete and the
newly accepted values were once persecuted. In other
words, it is unclear whether authoritarians in Eastern
Europe would continue to endorse communism or
would start to endorse capitalism given that more than
10 years have passed since the fall of communism.
Adorno et al. (1950) believed that as conventional values
change, authoritarians would slowly change what
they endorse to become more in line with what is conventional.
This analysis is consistent with Duckitťs arguments
that authoritarianism is best understood as an
overly strong attachment to the ingroup (1989) and
adherence to group norms (2001). In other words,
authoritarians are conformists at heart and will slowly
change their beliefs to become more in line with the
norms of their group (McFarland et al., 1996). However,
studies by Altemeyer (1996) have suggested that
although authoritarians are conformists, they may be
more concerned with the appearance of conformity
than with actual conformity. Thus, what an authoritarian
may endorse on a questionnaire may not necessarily be
accurate if their true beliefs are not perceived as socially
desirable. Study 3 was designed to examine whether
authoritarianism would still be related to the endorsement
of communism more than 10 years after the fall of
communism in Romanian. In addition, Study 3 was
designed to examine whether the social desirability of
communism and capitalism would affect their relationship
with authoritarianism.
Method
PARTICIPANTS
The 281 participants in this study were drawn from
the three previously mentioned samples (the hospital
sample from Study 1 and the cafeteria and dormitory student
samples from Study 2).
MEASURES
As mentioned previously, all samples completed the
14-item Romanian Authoritarianism scale. The cafeteria
1258 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
TABLE 2: Correlations Between Romanian Authoritarianism and
Prejudice
Dorm Sample Cafeteria Sample
(n = 97) (n = 100)
Prejudice-Arabs .39*** .34***
Anti-Semitism .34*** .52***
Sexism .27** .30**
Prejudice-Hungarians .50***
Attitudes-homosexuals .73***
Prejudice-Roma .38***
General Prejudice-3 .45*** .49***
General Prejudice-6 .64***
**p < .01. ***p < .001.
and dormitory student samples completed 10 items
regarding political opinions and beliefs about the current
situation in Romania, 5 of which were adapted from
McFarland et al. (1996). Five, five-item scales adapted
from McFarland et al. (1992) also were administered to
the hospital and the cafeteria samples to measure support
for the distributive justice principles of equality
(e.g., "It is just that basic material goods, such as basic
food, salaries, etc., be distributed to all members of society
equally"), equity (e.g., "It is just that people be paid
according to the quality and social benefit of their
work"), status (e.g., "It is just to distribute material goods
according to a person's rank, status, or social prestige"),
relative need (e.g., "It is just that people's housing be
baseduponneed,suchaslargerfamilies,etc."),andlaissezfaire
individualism (e.g., "It is just that housing be based
upon one's ability to pay"). Last, the impression management
subscale from version 6 of Paulhus's (1984) Balanced
Inventory of Desirable Responding was administered
to the hospital and the cafeteria samples to
measure social desirability. Responses to all measures
were made along a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 =
strongly agree).
Results
A principal components analysis was conducted on
the 10 items regarding political beliefs and opinions.
This analysis revealed three interpretable components.
The items loading on each component are presented
in Table 3 along with their correlations with
authoritarianism.
The correlations between authoritarianism and communism/anti-capitalism
are high and positive in both
samples (r = .53, p < .001, and r = .43, p < .001), which is
surprising given the period of time that has passed since
the fall of communism and the fact that almost every participant
was in elementary school at that time. In the
dorm sample, authoritarianism also was related to
decreased support for forming alliances with the West,
which is very important considering that Romania is currently
vying for admission to the EU and NATO. Last, in
both samples, authoritarianism was related to a
decreased appreciation of the freedom that the revolution
has brought with it, which seemingly indicates an
increased willingness to give up these new freedoms.
Unlike previous studies examining principles of distributive
justice (e.g., McFarland et al., 1992, 1996), all
three scales measuring capitalistic principles of distributive
justice (status, equity, and laissez-faire individualism)
were positively interrelated, as were the two scales
measuring communist (socialist) principles of distributive
justice (equality and relative need). These scales
were thus combined to form measures of capitalistic and
communistic (socialistic) principles of distributive justice.
Following McFarland et al. (1992, 1996), an overall
measure of pro-communist/anti-capitalist distributive
justice principles was formed by reversing the measure of
capitalistic principles and adding it to the measure of
communist (socialist) distributive justice principles.
Table 4 reports the correlations between authoritarianism,
principles of distributive justice, and social desirability.
In both samples, authoritarianism was positively
related to communist principles of social justice and, as
hypothesized, impression management.
Unexpectedly, the two samples differed in the degree
to which capitalistic and communist principles of distribKrauss
/ ROMANIAN AUTHORITARIANISM 1259
TABLE 3: Correlations Between Romanian Authoritarianism and Political Attitude Components and Items
Dorm Sample Cafeteria Sample
Component and Item (n = 97) (n = 100)
Component 1: Pro-communism/anti-capitalism (5 items) .53*** .43***
I still believe that socialism is the best way for our societya
.30** .21*
Capitalism is the best way for our society (reversed)a
.35*** .24*
I very much regret that Romania is going the way of capitalism and the market economya
.44*** .22*
Behind the material well-being and high living standards in capitalist countries there is decay
and spiritual emptinessb
.49*** .50***
Capitalism creates mutual hatred and distrust among different social groupsb
.31** .26**
Component 2: Alliances (2 items) ­.28** ­.12
Instead of relying on old alliances, Romania should make new alliances with the West ­.19 ­.16
Romania should do everything it can to enter into the European Union ­.26** ­.03
Component 3: Freedom (3 items) ­.34** ­.25*
I really appreciate the new religious freedom that the revolution has brought in the past 10 years ­.11 ­.25*
I really enjoy the freedom the revolution has brought with it ­.24* ­.02
Despite the fact that Romania is going through a very hard time, I still prefer economic,
political, and intellectual freedom ­.40*** ­.26**
a. This is a communist economy item.
b. This is an anti-capitalist item.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
utive justice were seen as socially desirable, with impression
management positively correlating with capitalist
principles in the hospital sample (r = .38, p < .001) and
with communistic principles in the cafeteria student
sample (r = .21, p < .04). To examine whether authoritarianism
would be related to "faking capitalist" in the hospital
study and, more improbably, "faking communist" in
the cafeteria study, the correlations between authoritarianism
and principles of distributive justice were reexamined
with impression management controlled. As
expected, the relationship between authoritarianism
and overall communist principles became clearer once
impression management was controlled in the hospital
sample, with authoritarianism's relationship with overall
pro-communist/anti-capitalist principles of social justice
becoming significant (r = .10, p < .39 to r = .26, p <
.02). However, in the cafeteria sample, authoritarianism's
correlations with principles of distributive justice
did not change much once impression management was
controlled. In other words, authoritarianism was related
to "faking capitalist" in the hospital sample and was unrelated
to "faking communist" in the cafeteria sample.
It also appeared possible that age may influence the
relationships between authoritarianism and communistic
beliefs and ideology, with the link between authoritarianism
and communism possibly being stronger for
older participants because of their increased exposure
to communist indoctrination. To examine this possibility,
the relationships between authoritarianism and the
other variables were reexamined with age controlled.
Unexpectedly, age was not significantly correlated with
either authoritarianism or political ideology in any of
the three samples (all ps > .06). Thus, controlling for age
had virtually no effect on the relationship between
authoritarianism and political ideology in the three samples,
with all correlations being within .02 of those previously
cited. In short, age did not appear to be related to
the relationship between authoritarianism and communist
beliefs and ideology.
Last, the descriptive statistics for each scale are shown
in Table 5. As can be seen, the reliability coefficients of
the Romanian Authoritarianism scale and the Impression
Management scale were relatively satisfactory across
samples. On the other hand, the measures of political
attitudes and distributive justice principles, as in
McFarland et al. (1992), were somewhat low. However,
the strength and consistency of the major findings suggest
that the measures were sufficiently reliable for the
present purposes.
Discussion
The results from Study 3 show that Romanian authoritarianism
is still significantly related to a variety of procommunist
political attitudes and opinions more than
10 years after the fall of communism. This is surprising
because of the sheer amount of time that has passed
since the fall of communism as well as the young age of
the participants used in this study. Even more unexpected
was the finding that the relationship between
authoritarianism and support for communism is currently
stronger in Romania than McFarland et al. (1996)
found in Russia just 2 years after the fall of communism.
Equally surprising was that age was unrelated to the relationship
between authoritarianism and communism. In
addition, some evidence was found that authoritarians
may lessen the degree to which they endorse communist
principles if they do not perceive them as socially desirable.
This last finding is very relevant to Romania's
immediate future given that in the 2000 general elections
the socialist left took power and the previously
obscure fascist right became the second most powerful
party in Romania.
STUDY 4: AUTHORITARIANISM AND
POLITICAL PREFERENCES
Study 3 was limited by the fact that it only examined
authoritarianism's relationships with abstract ideological
beliefs and not its relationships with more specific
political preferences. This limitation was an important
one because the ruling pro-Western coalition of centrists
recently was stunningly defeated in the general elections
by the party of former communist Ion Iliescu (the Party
of Social Democracy) and the party of ultra-nationalist
Corneliu Vadim Tudor (the Great Romania Party), both
of which have questionable commitments to economic
and political reforms (Roddy, 2000; Shafir, 2001). In an
effort to overcome this limitation, a fourth study was
designed. In this study, it was hypothesized that support
for the socialist "left" (the Party of Social Democracy)
and the fascist "right" (the Party of Great Romania)
would be positively related to authoritarianism and
anti-Western attitudes, whereas support for the centrist
parties would be negatively related to authoritarianism
and anti-Western attitudes. In other words, it was
expected that, as in post-communist Russia (McFarland
1260 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
TABLE 4: Correlations Between Romanian Authoritarianism, Principles
of Distributive Justice, and Social Desirability
Cafeteria Sample Hospital Sample
(n = 100) (n = 84)
RWA IM RWA IM
Authoritarianism (RWA) .23* .40***
Communism principles .33*** .21* .27** ­.01
Capitalism principles .01 ­.06 .11 .38***
Overall pro-communist .23* .18 .10 ­.33**
NOTE: RWA = Romanian Authoritarianism scale, IM = Impression
Management scale.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
et al., 1992), support for both fascist and socialist parties
would be related to authoritarianism despite the fact
that they are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.4
Method
PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE
The 92 (50 men, 42 women) participants in this study
were students at a large state university in Bucharest that
had agreed to voluntarily fill out the questionnaire on
the spot when approach by a student administrator on a
campus walkway. The participants averaged 21 years old
(SD = 1.7 years). The administration was completed in
the 2 weeks between the 2000 general elections and the
run-off presidential elections.
MEASURES
The participants completed the 14-item Romanian
Authoritarianism scale (M = 2.48, SD = .53), the five
pro-communism/anti-capitalism items from the Study 3
scale (M = 1.98, SD = .62), and a single item from Study 3
regarding whether Romania should join the EU scale
(M = 4.01, SD = .71). In addition, participants rated their
approval of seven major politicians and the five major
political parties they represented on a 5-point scale with
endpoints labeled strongly disapprove and strongly approve.
Results
A principal components analysis with varimax rotation
was first conducted on the approval ratings of seven
politician and five political parties. Demonstrating the
high salience of politics at this time, this analysis yielded
five components that perfectly matched the five major
parties with their representatives. However, the components
representing the three centrist parties (the Democratic
Party, the Liberal Party, and the Romanian Democratic
Convention/current administration) were all
positively correlated and were combined into a general
measure of centrist support.
An additional principal components analysis was conducted
on the five pro-communism/anti-capitalism
items from Study 3. This analysis unexpectedly yielded
two components. The first component (communist
economy) consisted of the three items regarding a preference
for a communist/socialist economy (see
Table 3). The second component (anti-capitalism) consisted
of two items reflecting negative attitudes about
capitalist societies, which in Romania means Western
societies.5
The correlations between approval of the different
political parties, authoritarianism (RWA), support for
a communist economy (communist economy), anticapitalist
attitudes (anti-capitalism), and support for
Romania's entrance in the EU are shown in Table 6. As
hypothesized, approval of the fascist right (the Party of
Great Romania), although unrelated to support for a
communist economy, was significantly related to authoritarianism
and anti-Western attitudes. Also as expected,
approval for the centrist parties was negatively related to
authoritarianism and to anti-Western attitudes. Unexpectedly,
approval of the socialist left was unrelated to
authoritarianism and, although related to support for a
communist economy at a moderately significant level
(r = .20, p < .06), was unrelated to anti-Western attitudes.
Discussion
Contrary to expectations and past research (McFarland
et al., 1992, 1996), authoritarianism, although highly
related to support for communist economic policies, was
not related to support for the socialist left in this relatively
small, select sample. However, authoritarianism
Krauss / ROMANIAN AUTHORITARIANISM 1261
TABLE 5: Descriptive Statistics for Measures in Study 3
Dorm Sample (n = 97) Cafeteria Sample (n = 100) Hospital Sample (n = 84)
M SD M SD M SD
Authoritarianism .80 2.76 .50 .81 2.49 .56 .79 3.05 .45
Component 1: Pro-communism/anti-capitalism .75 2.55 .66 .68 2.24 .64
Component 2: Alliances .49 3.88 .65 .43 3.74 .76
Component 3: Freedom ­.31 3.79 .61 .44 3.87 .67
Communist principles .61 3.29 .50 .38 3.41 .37
Capitalist principles .60 2.90 .40 .75 3.03 .45
Overall communist principles 3.19 .35 3.19 .26
Impression management .76 0.32 .19 .79 0.39 .21
TABLE 6: Correlations Between Romanian Authoritarianism, Approval
of Political Parties, and Political Attitudes
Communist AntiRWA
Economy Capitalism EU
Fascist right .95 .42*** .03 .21* ­.21*
Socialist left .84 .04 .20 ­.15 .13
Centrists .72 ­.33** ­.12 ­.26* .35***
NOTE: RWA = Romanian Authoritarianism scale, EU = European Un-
ion.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
was positively related to support for the noncommunist,
fascist right. Thus, it may seem that there is some evidence
that authoritarians are moving from the socialist
left to the fascist right in Romania. Yet, the fact that support
for the socialist left was only weakly related to support
for a communist economy and, if anything, was
related to slightly pro-Western attitudes suggests that it is
more probable that the socialist left draws support for a
number of reasons and not just a reactionary desire to
reinstate communist/socialist policies. In other words,
the socialist left may draw a large amount of support
from people high in authoritarianism, but it also seems
to draw an equally large amount of support from those
low in authoritarianism. On the other hand, support of
both the fascist right and the centrists seems to be highly,
although oppositely, related to authoritarianism. It is
thus not surprising that the centrists and the fascist right
were soundly defeated by the socialist left in the recent
elections because, unlike the socialist left, the centrists
and the fascist right draw support from mainly only one
end of the authoritarianism spectrum.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
As in past research (for a review, see Altemeyer, 1996),
authoritarianism was found to be significantly related to
a variety of attitudes and political affiliations. Authoritarianism
in Romania, as in the West, was highly related to
prejudicial attitudes against every outgroup measured.
Study 4 also provided some evidence that anti-capitalistic
attitudes might be, in part, just another form of prejudice,
although future work on the distinction between
communistic beliefs and anti-capitalistic attitudes is
needed.
Authoritarianism in Romania, unlike in the West, was
highly related to support for communism and was
related to the endorsement of communist (socialist)
principles of distributive justice. It thus seems that unlike
McFarland et al. (1992, 1996) found in Russia, Romanian
authoritarians do not seem to have been deprived
of their communist ideology. Instead, Romanian authoritarians
seem to have kept their communist ideology relatively
intact over the past 10 years and have even passed
it on to their children, who served as participants in the
last three studies. It thus appears that authoritarianism's
relationship with communist ideology in Eastern
Europe might be more resistant to change than originally
thought (cf. McFarland, 2000; McFarland et al.,
1996) and may even extend on to future generations.
Despite the strong and robust relationships between
authoritarianism and communist ideology in Romania,
support for the socialist left (the Party of Social Democracy)
did not appear to be related to authoritarianism in
Romania but seemed to appeal to those along every part
of the authoritarianism spectrum. However, the socialist
left in Romania appeared relatively moderate and
pro-Western, which indicates that these findings might
not extend to a country, such as Russia, with a more reactionary,
socialist (communist) left. In these countries,
high correlations between support for the socialist left
and authoritarianism should probably still be expected.
Support for the fascist right, on the other hand, does
appear to be strongly related to authoritarianism. It thus
appears that in Romania, as in the West, the fascist right
is intrinsically more appealing to those high in authoritarianism.
This is probably due to the strong leaders
(would-be dictators), the ultranationalism, and the "law
and order" approach that the fascist right almost invariable
provides (for a review, see Altemeyer, 1996).
Some evidence also suggested that authoritarians,
being conformists, may attempt to hide their opinions if
they are not socially desirable. This obviously is a very
dangerous type of behavior because it indicates that
authoritarians would be some of the most likely to have a
nondemocratic change of opinion when given the
opportunity (as they would be given if they were in
power). In addition, this behavior, through cognitive dissonance,
may provide the mechanism for Adorno et al.'s
(1950) and McFarland et al.'s (1996) theorized "mainstreaming"
of authoritarians' beliefs as their old beliefs
cease to be widely accepted. However, unlike McFarland
et al. (1996), no evidence of this slow change was found.
Instead, authoritarianism appeared to adhere to the old,
discredited belief system regardless of what they perceive
to be socially desirable.
Overall, the results pose some difficulties for current
authoritarianism theory. Authoritarianism is currently
conceptualized as a submission to the "established
authorities" in a society and a strict adherence to societal
norms (cf. Altemeyer, 1981, 1988, 1996; Duckitt, 2001).
However, in Romania, the general society and its established
authorities have tended to favor capitalism over
the past 10 years (Shafir, 2001), whereas authoritarianism
is strongly related to support for communism. Given
the emphasis that authoritarianism theory places on
conformity to the norms of the general society, the
pro-capitalist Romanian society, and the strong relationship
between authoritarianism and communist ideology,
the results seem to suggest that authoritarianism may
have gained its relationship with communism prior to
the fall of communism, when most of the participants
were children (most participants were 10 in 1989).
Because the attitude clusters that make up authoritarianism
are currently thought to coalesce during adolescence
(Altemeyer, 1988, 1996), the findings may therefore
support pushing back the age at which
authoritarianism is formed from adolescence into childhood
(B. Altemeyer, personal communication, April 2,
2001). Yet, as Altemeyer (1988, 1996) has noted, the rela1262
PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
tively limited knowledge and mental abilities of children
make it appear relatively implausible that authoritarianism
and its relationships with political ideology could
crystallize at such a young age. The implausibility of this
explanation is further amplified by the fact that age was
found to be unrelated to the relationship between
authoritarianism and communism. In other words, the
relationship between authoritarianism and communism
was just as strong for the youngest participants (who
were 7 and 8 years old in 1989) as it was for the older participants
(who were about 12 years old in 1989). In short,
if current authoritarianism theory is correct in its
emphasis on conformity to the general society, then the
results appear to support crediting young children with
more advanced and more stable political attitudes than
is probably warranted.
Instead of authoritarianism forming its relationships
with political ideology at such an early age, it seems more
likely that the participants acquired their authoritarian
attitudes when they were somewhat older, which would
have been sometime after the fall of communism for
most participants. If this view is correct, then this would
suggest that authoritarianism theory (Adorno et al.,
1950; Altemeyer, 1988, 1996; McFarland et al., 1996) may
have overestimated the impact of the general society on
authoritarian attitudes. In this case, it would appear that
participants acquired their authoritarian attitudes not
from the general, pro-capitalist society but largely from
specific groups within the society (e.g., familial, religious,
or friend groups) and the authorities associated
with these groups (e.g., parents, relatives, or priests). In
short, the results seem to suggest a "selective conformity"
hypothesis in which authoritarians would acquire their
beliefs from specific groups within the society and subsequently
maintain them even in the face of opposition
from the general society. However, the results do not
clearly favor either the "selective conformity" hypothesis
or the possibility of a childhood transmission of authoritarianism
and political ideology. Thus, more work is
clearly needed on the development of authoritarianism
and its relationship with political ideology.
CONCLUSION
Authoritarianism was significantly related to a variety
of communist and anti-Western attitudes in four different
samples. Because three of these samples used university
students more than 10 years after the fall of communism
in Romania, authoritarianism's bond with
communism should probably not be expected to lower
significantly in the next 10 years. Even if authoritarianism
does significantly lower its association with communism
in the future, the fascist right will probably be the
(only) beneficiary. If authoritarianism does indeed lose
its association with communism, the current research
suggests that authoritarianism will not necessarily lose its
associations with anti-capitalistic or anti-Western attitudes.
At any rate, the authoritarian's anti-democratic
desire for a dictatorship is an extremely dangerous
desire whatever the dictator's political affiliation.
NOTES
1. All 32 items were scored, although the results would have been
the same if Altemeyer's four "table-setter" items (items 1-4) were
removed from the item pool.
2. A reader was surprised that the item "obedience and respect for
authority are the most important virtues children should learn," which
was an original F-scale item, was not included in the Romanian Authoritarianism
scale. This item was not significantly correlated (r = .01, p >
.90) with the Romanian Authoritarianism scale and was therefore not
included in the scale. This seemed to be a result of the cramped living
conditions in Romania, with most families living in small two- or
three-room apartments regardless of the size of the family. Supporting
this view was the high, negative correlation (r = ­.49, p < .001) between
this item and a measure of emotional stability (Goldberg, 1999) that
was included as part of another project. On the other hand, the Romanian
Authoritarianism scale was positively correlated with emotional
stability (r = .23, p < .04).
3. Romanian-language versions of all measures used in this article
are available from the author.
4. Due to a social stigma being associated with the term communist,
self-labeled communists are all but extinct in Romanian politics, even
among those who were important members of the former Communist
Party, such as current president Ion Iliescu.
5. Because of the unexpected two-component solution in this sample,
the five items were reanalyzed in the cafeteria and dormitory samples.
Neither the Kaiser criterion nor the scree plot test revealed a
two-component solution in these samples, but the two items that
loaded the highest on the second component were the same. In addition,
the two items loaded in the same order, with the "in capitalist
countries there is decay and spiritual emptiness" item having the highest
loadings in all three samples.
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Received February 14, 2001
Revision accepted February 15, 2002
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