Russian authoritarians deserted communism for nationalist and religious parties

Evidence

Over the course of these three studies, correlations between RWA scores and support for Communism dropped from . to .38. It could be that many of the High RWAs who used to back the Communists have gone over to nationalists, Czarist, religious, and anti-Semitic parties. But it could also mean that, as democratic reforms fail, the Communists are attracting a wider range of supporters and could become the major opposition. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 505

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• QUESTION: The declining RWA-Communism correlation raises whether pro-authoritarian impulses migrate ideologically as political landscapes shift.

Related

• Authoritarians shifted from Communist to nationalist parties as their fortunes changed (similarity 0.91)
• Authoritarianism predicted hard-line Communist and nationalist support in post-Soviet Russia (similarity 0.83)
• High authoritarians supported both Pamyat nationalists and the Communist Party (similarity 0.81)
• High-RWA Russians favored their own nation more (similarity 0.79)
• Authoritarian loyalty follows whoever was taught as legitimate authority in childhood (similarity 0.78)