"To Have a Strong Leader Is Important!" Analysis of Authoritarianism in Croatian Society from 1999 to 2018

Abstract

The primary goal of this paper is the analysis of
authoritarianism in Croatian society which is based on the
results from the European Values Study. In a theoretical
sense, we are following Bob Altemeyer’s concept of
authoritarianism, which is defined as the combination of
three attitudinal clusters – authoritarian submission,
authoritarian aggression and conventionalism (Altemeyer,
1988). The analysis is divided into two parts. In the first part
we analyse separately eight particles which comprise our
authoritarian construct with the basic socio-demographic
characteristics for the year 2018. In the second part we use
the authoritarianism index as criterion for the three-predictor
model (socio-demographic characteristics, religiosity and
trust). On the basic level, the results show an increase of
those who consider that having a strong leader is good and
that it would be a good thing to have greater respect for
authority in the near future. Further analysis shows that a
lower level of education, the importance of God in life, and
trust in the Church are the most important predictors for
authoritarianism in Croatian society.