Secondary authoritarianism – the economy and right-wing extremist attitudes in contemporary Germany

Abstract

In this essay the thesis of a secondary authoritarian dynamic governing contemporary German society is presented. The author follows Sigmund Freud’s distinction between primary and secondary masses – a leader as idealized object of the group members constitutes the first, an abstract object produces the latter mass. To underpin his thesis the author argues with empirical findings of the longitudinal research project ‘Leipzig-Studies on Authoritarianism’ measuring right-wing extremist attitudes in the general German population since 2002 (until 2018 known as ‘Leipzig “Center”-Studies’). Those empirical findings and group discussions conducted in the same project point out that in post-fascistic German society, economic growth had a most prominent role. It was able to win this powerful position because its historical roots were laid in Nazi Germany. The authoritarian dynamic under economic regression until today shows that the function of this secondary authoritarian object is still in power. If this thesis is correct, right-wing extremist attitudes give a deeper insight into modern societies as well as into an individual’s prejudices.