The scientific drive and the moral fear motivate authoritarianism research

Evidence

I study authoritarianism partly because it has turned out to be a crackerjack mystery, with many inner puzzles. I want to see how it comes out in the end, and I am pleased that the various pieces are fitting together now. So I am hooked on the scientific quest. But mainly I have spent over twenty-five years trying to understand what Nevitt Sanford and his associates first uncovered because, like them, I suspect “It can happen here.” — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3605

Categorization

• XREF: ‘It can happen here’ echoes Sinclair Lewis’s antifascist novel It Can’t Happen Here, and the fear that authoritarianism could surface in America connects to the whole framing of the book.