John Dean on Scottie Walker: Authoritarian times 10!

OPen your eyes, dear people of Wisconsin. This case is a litmus test for our country also,
as this is the caliber of leadership jocking for power in Washington...

From JOhn Dean, an expert, both experiencially and scholarly on authoritarian politicians:

"In my last column, I asked if Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker might be a conservative without conscience. Stated a bit differently, my question is whether the Governor is what social science describes as a “double high authoritarian,” an outlook that has proven itself not to be particularly well-suited for governing in a democratic fashion. I raised this question because Walker is facing a recall vote, in which voters will decide whether to remove him from office, on June 5.

... many people responded to my Twitter solicitation of information about Walker. Surprisingly, to date, no one has written a truly in-depth biographical profile of Walker, so I suspect that Wisconsin voters really do not know much about their governor.
Typologies have their problems. But based on what I found, there is little doubt in my mind that Scott Walker is a classic authoritarian.

If I lived in Wisconsin, I would be uncomfortable with this man, whom I find more Nixonian than even Richard Nixon himself (the authoritarian leader with whom I was, and am, so very familiar).

Please understand that these authoritarian leaders and their followers are not necessarily bad people. To the contrary, I have many friends who fall into this group, who are wonderful people. But none of my double high authoritarian friends are suited to serve as President of the United States, or as governor of any state—posts which have never worked well when an authoritarian has taken charge. Democracy and democratic institutions do not function well with dogmatic, unbending authoritarian leaders. Authoritarians are great as dictators, and even at times benevolent. They are often outstanding at running businesses, and when serving as high-ranking officers in the military, not to mention law enforcement. But they are failures as presidents and governors, and as Bob Altemeyer’s work has shown, they can be dangerous to democracy.

Hopefully, one or more social scientists or political psychologists in Wisconsin, where there are many, will step forward and tell the people of Wisconsin more about what they have on their hands, with Scott Walker as their governor. In fact, the June 5, 2012 election is a true opportunity to discourage another leader who is a conservative without conscience, for these leaders always have a healthy following. Altemeyer estimates that about twenty-five percent of the population has, in varying degrees, the disposition to follow a double high authoritarian, many blindly or simply because it assuages their fears. And, of course, these are aggressive followers who can attract others who are unaware of the nature of the person they are electing, thus enabling an authoritarian leader like Walker to gain ever-growing control."

Good luck, Wisconsin.


Walker’s Social-Dominance Disposition


Latest post on

http://verdict.justia.com/2012/04/06/good-luck-wisconsin-youve-got-a-classic-authoritarian-governor?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Verdict+%28Verdict+%7C+Legal+Analysis+and+Commentary+from+Justia%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher