Differences in authoritarianism between immigrants from the former Soviet Union and native-born Israelis

In: Democratization, Europeanization, and globalization trends: cross-national analysis of authoritarianism, socialization, communications, youth, and social policy, S. 295-308

Abstract

"The present study examined whether living under a communist dictatorship may increase one's level of authoritarianism, thus testing the claim that situational factors affect this personality trait to determine whether authoritarianism may develop within a communist dictatorship (Rokeach, 1960). Three groups were compared regarding their authoritarianism levels, using Altemeyer's (1988) Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale: (a) citizens of the Former Soviet Union (FSU), who immigrated to Israel during the 1970s, (b) citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), who immigrated to Israel during the 1990s, and (c) a control group consisted of native-born Israelis. Three hundred subjects participated in the study. The authoritarianism level of the 1970s immigrants, who had been socialized in the FSU (when the ideal was 'the Soviet Man') and whose affinity to the Jewish collective and to Zionism has been stronger, was found to be significantly higher than both that of the 1990s immigrants, who had come to Israel from a much less monolithic sociopolitical reality (where democratic procedures had already been included in the political system, economics had gone through privatization processes, and collectivism had changed into moderate individualism) and that of die native-born Israelis, who have always lived in a democracy. This finding supports the possibility of developing an authoritarian personality as a reaction to a communist, not only within a fascist right-wing dictatorship. A second finding is that the highest rate of both secular subjects and supporters of die left-wing parties was found among die 1970s immigrants, who scored highest on die Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale. This unique pattern is discussed in terms of the sociopolitical context of the secular Zionist ideology and interpreted as an expression of nationalistic protest against die communist dictatorship." (author's abstract)