Democracy and Working-Class Authoritarianism

Democracy and Working-Class Authoritarianism
Author(s): Seymour Martin Lipset

Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Aug., 1959), pp. 482-501
Published by: American Sociological Association
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DEMOCRACY AND WORKING-CLASS AUTHORITARIANISM

SEYMOUR MARTIN LIPSET
Universityof California,Berkeley
A variety of evidencefrom many countriessuggeststhat low status and low educationpredisposeindividualsto favor extremist,intolerant,and transvaluationalforms of political and
religiousbehavior.The evidenceincludesreportsfrom surveys concerningdifferentialattitudes
among the various strata towards democraticvalues, including civil liberties for unpopular
political groups, civil rights for ethnic minorities,legitimacyof opposition,and proper limits
on the power of nationalpolitical leaders; psychologicalresearchon the personalitytraits of
differentstrata; data on the compositionand appeal of chiliasticreligioussects; and materials
bearing on the support of authoritarianmovements. The factors operating to support this
predispositionare all those which make for a lack of "sophistication,"a complex view of
causal relations,and heightenedinsecurity,both objectiveand subjective.These findingssuggest that the successof the CommunistParty among those of low status in poorer nations is
positively related to its authoritariancharacter.
GRADUAL realizationthat authoritarian have been given recently by the support of

predispositions and ethnic prejudice White Citizen's Councils and segregation by
flow more naturally from the situation workers in the South, and by the active
of the lower classes than from that of the participation of many workers in the "race
middle and upper classes in modern indus- riots" in England. A "Short Talk with a
trial society has posed a tragic dilemma for Fascist Beast" (an 18 year old casual laborer
those intellectuals of the democraticleft who who took part in the beating of Negroes in
once believed the proletariat necessarily to London), appearingin the left Socialist New
be a force for liberty, racial equality, and Statesman, portrays graphically the ideologsocial progress. Ignazio Silone has asserted ical syndrome which sometimes culminates
that "the myth of the liberating power of in such behavior: 2
the proletariat has dissolved along with that
'That'swhy I'm with the Fascists,'he says.
other myth of progress. The recent examples
'They'reagainstthe blacks.That Salmon,he's
a Communist.The LabourPartyis Communist
of the Nazi labor unions, like those of
too. Like the unions.'His motherand father,
Salazar and Peron ... have at last convinced
he says, are strict Labour supporters.Is he
of this even those who were reluctant to
againstthe LabourParty. 'Nah, I'm for them.
admit it on the sole grounds of the totaliThey'refor y'know-us. I'm for the unions
tarian degeneration of Communism."1
too.' Even though they were dominatedby
Communists?'Sure,'he says. 'I like the ComDramatic demonstrations of this point
munist Party. It's powerful,like.' How can
he be for the Communistswhen the Fascists
*An early version of this paper was written for
hate them?
a conferenceon "The Future of Liberty"sponsored
Len says, 'Well,y'know,I'm for the Fascists
by the Congress for Cultural Freedom in Milan,
whenthey'reagainstthe nigs. But the Fascists
Italy in September,1955. It has been extensively
is really for the rich people y'know,like the
reworkedsince that time as part of a comparative
Tories.All for the guv'nors,people like that.
study of the relationshipbetween political behavior
But the Communistsare very powerful.' I
and social structurewhich has been supportedby
told him the CommunistParty of Britainwas
grantsfrom the Committeeon ComparativePolitics
quite small.
of the Social Science Research Council and the
'But,' he says, 'they got Russia behind
Behavioral SciencesDivision of the Ford Foundathem.'His voice was full of marvel.'I admire
tion. I am indebtedto RobertAlford and Juan Linz
Russia.Y'know,the people.They'repeaceful.
for researchassistance.
They're strong. When they say they'll do a
1 "The Choice of Comrades,"Encounter,3 (Dething, they do it. Not like us. Makes you
cember,1954), p. 25. Arnold A. Rogow, writing in
think: they got a weaponover there can wipe
the socialist magazine Dissent, even suggests that
us all out, with one wave of a general'sarm.
"the liberaland radicalapproachhas always lacked
Destroy us completely and totally. Honest,
a popularbase, that in essence,the liberaltradition
has been a confinedminority, perhapselitist, tradition." "The Revolt Against Social Equality," Dissent, 4 (Autumn, 1957), p. 370.
2 Clancy Sigal, in the New Statesman,October4,

1958, p. 440.
482
WORKING-CLASS AUTHORITARIANISM
those Russians.When they say they'll do a
thing, they do it. Like in Hungary.I pity
those people,the Hungarians.But did you see
the Russianswentin andstoppedthem.Tanks.
Not like us in Cyprus.Our soldiersget shot
in the back and what do we do? The Communistsis for the small men.'
The demonstrations of working-class ethnic prejudice and support for totalitarian
political movements which have upset many
leftist stereotypes parallel findings in such
different areas of social science research as
public opinion, religion, family patterns, and
personality structure. Many studies suggest
that the lower-classway of life producesindividuals with rigid and intolerant approaches
to politics. These findings, discussed below,
imply that one may anticipate wide-spread
support by lower-class individuals and
groups for extremist movements.
This assertation may seem to be contradicted by the facts of political history. Since
their beginnings in the nineteenth century,
workers'organizationsand parties have been
a major force in extending political democracy and in waging progressive political and
economic struggles. Before 1914, the classic
division between the working-class left parties and the right was not based solely upon
stratification issues, such as redistributionof
income, status, and educational opportunities, but also rested upon civil liberties and
international policy issues. The workers,
judged by the policies of their parties, were
often the backbone of the fight for greater
political democracy, religious freedom and
minority rights, and international peace. The
parties backed by the conservative middle
and upper classes in much of Europe, on the
other hand, tended to favor more extremist
political forms, resist the extension of the
suffrage, back the established church, and
support jingoistic foreign policies.
Events since 1914 have gradually eroded
these patterns. In some countries workingclass groups have proved to be the most
nationalistic and jingoistic sector of the population. In a number of nations, they have
clearly been in the forefront of the struggle
against equal rights for minority groups,
and have sought to limit immigration or
to impose racial standards in countries with
open immigration. The conclusion of the
anti-Fascist era and the emergence of the
cold war have shown that the struggle for
483
freedom is not a simple variant of the

economic class struggle. The threat to freedom posed by the Communist movement is
as great as that once posed by Fascism and
Nazism, and that movement, in all countries
where it is strong, is based largely on the
lower levels of the working-class or the
rural population.3 No other party has been
as thoroughly and completely based on the
working-class and the poor. Socialist parties, past and present, have secured much
more support from the middle classes than
have the Communists.
Some socialists and liberals have suggested that the fact of working-class backing for Communism proves nothing about
authoritarian tendencies in the workingclass, since the Communist Party often masquerades as a party seeking to fulfill the
classic western-democraticrevolutionaryvalues of liberty, equality and fraternity; they
argue that most Communistsupporters, particularly the less educated, are deceived into
thinking that the Communists are simply
more militant and more efficient socialists.
I would suggest, however, the alternative
hypothesis that, rather than being a source
of strain, the intransigent, intolerant, and
demonological aspects of Communist ideology attract members from the lower class
of low income, low-status occupation, and
little education. In modern industrial societies such persons have made up a very
large part of the working class.
The social situation of the lower strata,
particularly in poorer countries with low
levels of education, predisposes them to view
politics in simplistic and chiliastic terms of
black and white, good and evil. Consequently, other things being equal, they
should be more likely than other strata to
prefer extremist movements which suggest
easy and quick solutions to social problems
and have a rigid outlook rather than those
which view the problem of reform or change
in complex and gradualist terms and which
support rational values of tolerance.
3 The sources of variation in Communist strength
from country to country are beyond the scope of
this paper. For data and further discussion, see S. M.
Lipset, "Socialism-Left
and Right-East
and
West," Confluence, 7 (Summer, 1958), pp. 173-192;
and Lipset, Political Man: Essays on the Sociology
of Democracy, New York: Doubleday, forthcoming.
484
AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICALREVIEW
most established authoritarian predispositions. Thus a Catholic worker who is

strongly anti-capitalist may still vote for a
relatively conservative party in France,
Italy, or Germanybecause his ties to Catholicism are stronger determinants of his electoral choice than his resentments about his
class status; a worker with a high authoritarian predisposition may defend democratic
institutions against Fascist attack because
his links to anti-Fascist working-class parties and unions affect his political behavior
more than do his authoritarian values. Conversely, those who are not predisposed toward extremist political styles may back an
extremist party because of certain aspects of
its program and political role. Many persons supported the Communistsin 1936 and
1943 as an anti-Fascist internationalist
party.
The specific propensity of given social
strata to support extremist or democratic
political parties, then, cannot be derived or
predicted from a knowledge of their psychological predispositions or from attitudes
revealed by the survey data presented below.6 Both evidence and theory suggest, however, that the lower strata are relatively
more authoritarian,that (again, other things
being equal) they will be more attracted
toward an extremist movement than toward
a moderate and democratic one, and that,
once recruited, they will not be alienated by
its lack of democracy, while more educated
or sophisticated supporterswill tend to drop
4See Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy, away.
London: Chatto and Windus,1957, pp. 78-79, 146I shall first discuss basic lower-class at148, for a discussionof the acceptanceof norms of
tolerationby the Britishworkingclass.E. T. Prothro titudes toward civil liberties and non-ecoand Levon Melikian, in "The California Public nomic liberalism in general and then examine
OpinionScale in an AuthoritarianCulture,"Public certain parallels between religion and poliOpinion Quarterly, 17 (Fall, 1953), pp. 353-363, tics. After documenting some of the general
have shown, in a study of 130 students at the
American University in Lebanon, that they ex- patterns, I shall specify the elements in the
hibited the same association between authoritari- general life-situation of lower class persons
anism and economic radicalismas is found among -the family patterns, typical educational
workersin the United States.A surveyin 1951-52of experiences, characteristic tensions and in1,800 Puerto Rican adults, representativeof the
entireruralpopulation,found that 84 per cent were securities, their isolated group existence and
"somewhatauthoritarian,"as comparedwith 46 per general lack of sophistication-which difcent for a comparableU. S. population; see Henry ferentiate their life from that of the middle
The "authoritarianism"of any social stratum or class, of course, is highly relative, as

well as modifiable by organizational commitments to democracy and by individual
cross-pressures.Thus- the lower class in any
given country may be more authoritarian
than the upper classes, but on an "absolute"
scale all the classes in that country may be
less authoritarian than any class in another
country. In a country such as Britain, where
norms of toleration are well-developed and
widespreadin every social stratum, even the
lowest class may be less authoritarian,more
"sophisticated" in the sense of having a
longer time-perspective and a gradualist political outlook, than the most highly educated
stratum in an underdeveloped country,
where immediate problems and crises impinge on every class and short-term solutions may be sought by all groups.4
Commitments to democratic procedures
and ideals by the principal organizations to
which low-status individuals belong may,
however, influence their actual political behavior more than their underlying personal
values, however authoritarian.5 A working
class which has developed an early (prior
to the Communists) loyalty to a democratic
political or trade-union movement which has
successfully fought for the social and economic rights of that class will not easily
change its allegiance.
Commitments to other values or institutions by individuals may also override the
Wells, "Ideology and Leadershipin Puerto Rican

Politics," American Political Science Review, 49
(March, 1955), pp. 22-40.
5 The Southern Democrats were the staunchest
opponentsof McCarthyand his tactics, not because
of any deep opposition to undemocraticmethods,
but ratherbecauseof an organizationalcommitment
to the DemocraticParty.
6For a detailed discussion of the fallacy of attempting to suggest that political behavior is a
necessaryfunction of political attitudes or psychological traits, see Nathan Glazer and S. M. Lipset,
"The Polls on Communism and Conformity" in
Daniel Bell, editor, The New American Right, New
York: CriterionBooks, 1955, pp. 141-166.
485
TABLE 1. RESPONSES OF DIFFERENT GERMAN OCCUPATIONALGROUPS TO PREFERREDPARTY SYSTEM IN

PERCENTAGES(MALES ONLY), 1953 *
Occupational
Group
Civil Servants
Upper White-Collar
Free Professionals
Skilled Workers
Artisans
Lower White-Collar
Businessmen (Small)
Farmers
Semi-Skilled Workers
Unskilled Workers
Several
Parties
88
77
69
65
64
62
60
56
49
40
One
Party
No
Party
No
Opinion
6
13
13
22
16
19
15
22
28
27
3
2
8
5
9
7
12
6
7
11
3
8
10
8
11
12
13
16
16
22
111
58
38
277
124
221
156
241
301
172
* Computed from IBM cards supplied to author by the UNESCO Institute at Cologne from its 1953
survey of German opinion.
classes and make the poor receptive to authoritarian values and likely to support extremist movements.7
DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND STRATIFICATION
The distinction between economic and

non-economic liberalism helps to clarify the
relationship between class position and
political behavior. Economic liberalism refers to the conventional issues concerning
redistribution of income, status, and power
among the classes. The poorer everywhere
are more liberal or leftist on such issues;
they favor more welfare state measures,
higher wages, graduated income taxes, support of trade-unions,and other measures opposed by those of higher class position. On
the other hand, when liberalism is defined
in non-economicterms-so as to support, for
example, civil liberties for political dissidents, civil rights for ethnic and racial minorities, internationalist foreign policies, and
liberal immigration legislation-the correlation is reversed.8
7 The term "extremist"is used to refer to movements, parties, and ideologies. "Authoritarian"refers to the attitudinalpredispositionsof individuals
(or of "groups,"where a statistical aggregate of
individual attitudes, and not group characteristics
as such, are of concern). The term "authoritarian"
has too many associationswith attitudinal studies
to be used safely to refer also to types of social
organizations.
8 See G. H. Smith, "Liberalismand Level of Information,"Journal of EducationalPsychology, 39
(February,1948), pp. 65-82; and "The Relation of
'Enlightenment'to Liberal-ConservativeOpinions,"
Journalof SocialPsychology,28 (August,1948), pp.
3-17,
Abundant data from almost every country

in the world with competing political parties
show that economic liberalism or leftism is
inversely associated with socio-economic
status. In Germany, for example, a study
conducted by the UNESCO Institute at
Cologne asked a systematic sample of 3,000
Germans: "Do you think that it would be
better if there were one party, several parties, or no party?" The results analyzed according to occupational status indicate that
the lower strata of the working class and
the rural population were less likely to support a multi-party system (a reasonable index of democratic attitudes in westernized
countries) than the middle and upper strata.
(See Table 1.) Comparable results were
obtained in 1958 when a similar question
was asked of national or regional samples
in Austria, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Mexico,
West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium,
Italy, and France. Although the proportion
favoring a multi-party system varied from
country to country, within each nation low
socio-economic status was associated with
failure to support a multi-party system.9
9Based on as yet unpublisheddata in the files
of the World Poll, an organizationestablishedby
International Research Associates which sponsors
comparablesurveys in a number of countries.The
question asked in this survey was: "Supposethere
was a politicalparty here which correspondsto your
own opinions-one you would more or less consider 'your' party. Would you wish this to be the
only party in our country with no other parties
besides,or would you be against such a one party
system?" Similar correlationswere found between
low status and belief in the value of a strongleader.
486
Somewhat similar findings were obtained

in studies in Japan, Great Britain, and the
United States in surveys designed to secure
general reactions to problems of civil liberties or the rights of various minorities. In
Japan, for example, the workers and the
rural population tended to be more authoritarian and less concerned with civil liberties
than the middle and upper classes.10
In England, Eysenck found comparable
differences between "tough-minded" and
"tender-minded"people in their general social outlook. The first group tended to be
intolerant of deviations from the standard
moral or religious codes, anti-Negro, antiSemitic, and xenophobic, while the "tenderminded" in general were tolerant of deviation, unprejudiced,and internationalist." In
summing up his findings, based on attitude
scales given to supportersof different British
parties, Eysenck reports that "Middle-class
Conservatives are more tender-minded than
working-class Conservatives; middle-class
Liberals are more tender-mindedthan working-class Liberals; middle-class Socialists are
more tender-minded than working-class
Socialists; and even middle-class Communists are more tender-mindedthan workingclass Communists."12
The evidence from various American
studies dealing with attitudes toward civil
liberties, as well as such other components
of non-economic liberalism as ethnic prejudice, is also clear and consistent-the lower
strata are the least tolerant.' In the most
10 See Kotaro Kido and Masataka Sugi, "A Report
of Research on Social Stratification and Mobility in
Tokyo (III), The Structure of Social Consciousness," Japanese Sociological Review, 4 (January,
1954), pp. 74-100; and National Public Opinion
Institute of Japan, Report No. 26, A Survey Concerning the Protection of Civil Liberties (Tokyo,
1951).
11 H. J. Eysenck, The Psychology of Politics,
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1954, p. 127.
12 Ibid., p. 137. For a severe critique of the
methods used in this study see Richard Christie,
"Eysenck's Treatment of the Personality of Communists," Psychological Bulletin, 53 (November,
1956), pp. 411-430.
13 See Arnold W. Rose, Studies in Reduction of
Prejudice, Chicago: American Council on Race Relations, 1948, for a review of the literature bearing
on this point prior to 1948. Several studies have
shown the key importance of education and the
independent effect of economic status, both basic
components of low status. See Daniel J. Levinson
systematic of these, based on a national

sample of nearly 5,000 Americans, Stouffer
divided his respondentsinto three categories,
"less tolerant, in-between, and more tolerant," by using a scale based on responses
to questions about the right of free speech
for Communists,critics of religion, advocates
of nationalization of industry, and the like.
As the data presented in Table 2 demonstrate, tolerance increases with moves up the
stratification ladder. Only 30 per cent of
those in manual occupations are in the
"<mosttolerant" category, as contrasted with
66 per cent of the professionals and 51 per
TABLE 2. PROPORTIONOF MALE RESPONDENTSWHO
ARE "MORE TOLERANT" WITH RESPECT TO
CivIL LIBERTIES ISSUES *
Professional and Semi-Professional

Proprietors, Managers and Officials
Clerical and Sales
Manual Workers
Farmers or Farm Workers
66%
51
49
30
20
(159)
(223)
(200)
(685)
(202)
* Source: Samuel A. Stouffer, Communism, Conformity and Civil Liberties, New York: Doubleday,
1955, p. 139. The figures for manual and farm
workers were calculated from cards supplied by
Professor Stouffer.
cent of the proprietors, managers, and officials. As in Germany and Japan, farmers are
low in tolerance.
The findings of public opinion surveys in
thirteen different countries that the lower
strata are less committed to democratic
norms than the middle classes are reaffirmed
by the research of more psychologically
oriented investigators, who have studied the
social correlates of "authoritarian personality" structures as measured by the now
famous "F scale." 14 The most recent sumand R. Nevitt Sanford, "A Scale for the Measurement of Anti-Semitism," Journal of Psychology,
17 (April, 1944), pp. 339-370; and H. H. Harlan,
"Some Factors Affecting Attitudes Toward Jews,"
American Sociological Review, 7 (December, 1942),
pp. 816-827, for data on attitudes toward one
ethnic group. For a digest of recent research in
the field of race relations in the United States, see
Melvin M. Tumin, Segregation and Desegregation,
New York: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith,
1957.
14 See Theodore Adorno, et al., The Authoritarian
Personality, New York: Harpers, 1950. This, the
original study, shows less consistent results on this
point than the many follow-up investigations. The
mary of the research findings of the many
studies in this area shows a consistent association of authoritarianismwith lower class
and status.15One survey of 460 Los Angeles
adults reports that "the working class contains a higher proportion of authoritarians
than either the middle or the upper class,"
and that among workers,those who explicitly
identified themselves with "the working
class" rather than "the middle class" were
more authoritarian.16
Recent researchwithin lower status groups
suggests the possibility of a negative correlation between authoritarianism and neuroticism. This would be congruentwith the hypothesis that those who deviate from the
standards of their group are more likely to be
neurotic than those who conform. Hence, if
we assume that authoritarian traits are conventional reactions of low status people, then
the lower class anti-authoritarian should be
more neurotic. As Davids and Eriksen
point out, where the "standard of reference
on authoritarianism is quite high," people
may be well adjusted and authoritarian.'8
The absence of a relationship between authoritarian attitudes and neurotic traits
among lower class groups reported by these
authors is consistent with the hypothesis that
authoritarianattitudes are "normal"and expected in such groups.19
authors themselves (p. 178) point to the inadequacy
of their sample.
15 Richard Christie and Peggy Cook, "A Guide to
Published Literature Relating to the Authoritarian
Personality," Journal of Psychology, 45 (April,
1958), pp. 171-199.
16 W. J. McKinnon and R. Centers, "Authoritarianism and Urban Stratification," American Journal of Sociology, 61 (May, 1956), p. 618.
17 Much of contemporary psychological knowledge in this area has been gained from populations
most convenient for the academic investigator to
reach, university students. It is often forgotten that
personality and attitude syndromes may be far different for this highly select group than for other
segments of the total population.
18 See Anthony Davids and Charles W. Eriksen,
"Some Social and Cultural Factors Determining
Relations Between Authoritarianism and Measures
of Neuroticism," Journal of Consulting Psychology,
21 (April, 1957), pp. 155-159. This article contains
many references to the relevant literature.
19 The greater compatibility of the demands of
Communist Party membership and working-class
background as indicated by Almond's finding that
twice as many of the middle-class party members
as of the working-class group in his sample of Com-
AUTHORITARIAN
487
RELIGION
AND
STRATIFICATION
Many observers have called attention to

a connection between low social status and
fundamentalist or chiliastic religion. The
liberal Protestant churches, on the other
hand, almost invariably have been predominantly middle-class in membership. In
the United States, this class division among
the churches has created a dilemma for the
clergy of the so-called liberal churches, who
have tended to be liberal in their politics
as well as in their religion and, hence, have
often desired to spread their social and religious gospel among the lower strata. They
have found, however, that the latter prefer
ministers who preach of hell-fire and salvation, of a conflict between God and Satan,
to those who advocate modern liberal Protestant theology.20
Writing in the early period of the socialist
movement, FrederickEngels noted that early
Christianity and the revolutionary workers'
movement had "notable points of resemblance," particularly in their millenial appeals and lower-class base.2' Recently, Elmer
Clark has shown that small sects in contemporary America,sects resemblingearly Christianity, "originate mainly among the religiously neglected poor." He writes:
[when] the revolts of the poor have been
tingedwith religion,whichwas nearlyalways
the case until recent times, millenial ideas
have appeared,and . . . these notions are
prominentin most of the small sects which
follow the evangelicaltradition.Premillenarianism is essentiallya defense mechanismof
the disinherited;despairingof obtainingsubstantial blessings through social processes,
they turn on the world which has withheld
its benefits and look to its destructionin a
cosmic cataclysmwhich will exalt them and
cast downthe rich and powerful.22
munists had neurotic problems hints again at the
normality and congruence of authoritarian politics
with a working-class background. See Gabriel Almond, The Appeals of Communism, Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1954, pp. 245-246.
20 See Liston Pope, Millhands and Preachers,
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1942, pp. 105116.
21 Frederick Engels, "On the Early History of
Christianity," in K. Marx and F. Engels, On Religion, Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House,
1957, pp. 312-320.
22Elmer T. Clark, The Small Sects in America,
488
Troeltsch has characterized the psychological appeal of sectarian religion in a way

that might as appropriately be applied to
extremist politics:
It is the lower classes which do the really
creative work, forming communities on a
genuinereligiousbasis.They aloneuniteimagination and simplicityof feeling with a nonreflectivehabit of mind, a primitiveenergy,
and an urgentsense of need. On such a foundation alone is it possibleto build up an unconditionalauthoritativefaith in a Divine
Revelationwith simplicity of surrenderand
unshakencertainty.Only within a fellowship
of this kindis there roomfor those who have
a sense of spiritualneed, and who have not
acquiredthe habit of intellectualreasoning,
whichalwaysregardseverythingfrom a relative point of view.23
Jehovah's Witnesses is an excellent example of a rapidly growing sect which "continues to attract, as in the past, the underprivileged strata."24Their principal teaching
is that the Kingdom of Heaven is at
hand. "The end of the age is near. Armageddon is just around the corner, when the
wicked will be destroyed, and the theocracy,
or rule of God, will be set up upon the
earth." 25 And as in the case of Communist
political millenialists, the organization of
the Witnesses, whose membership in the
United States is many hundreds of thousands, is "hierarchical and highly authoritarian. There is little democratic participation in the management or in the formation
of policies of the movement as a whole." 26
New York: The Abingdon Press, 1949, pp. 16, 218219. According to Bryan Wilson, "insecurity, differential status anxiety, cultural neglect, prompt a
need for readjustment which sects may, for some,
provide. The maladjusted may be communities, or
occupational groups, or dispersed individuals in
similar marginal positions." "An Analysis of Sect
Development," American Sociological Review, 24
(February, 1959), p. 8. See also Wilson's Minority
Religious Movements in Modern Britain, London:
Heineman and Sons, forthcoming.
23 Ernst Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of the
Christian Churches, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1930, Vol. 1, p. 44.
24 Charles S. Braden, These Also Believe. A Study
of Modern American Cults and Minority Religious
Movements, New York: Macmillan, 1949, p. 384.
25 Ibid., p. 370.
26 Ibid., p. 363. It may be suggested that, as in
authoritarian political movements, the intolerant
character of most of the sects is an attractive
feature and not a source of strain for their lowerclass members. Although no systematic evidence is
Direct linkages between the social roots of

political and of religiousextremismhave been
observedin a numberof countries. In Czarist
Russia, the young Trotsky consciously recognized this relationship and successfully recruited the first working-class members of
the South Russian Workers' Union (a revolutionary Marxist organization of the late
1890s) from adherents to religious sects.27
In Holland and Sweden, recent studies have
shown that the Communists are strongest in
regions which once were centers of fundamentalist religious revivalism.28
These findings do not imply that religious
sects supported by lower-class elements become centers of political protest; in fact, the
discontent and frustration otherwise flowing
into channels of political extremismare often
drained off by a transvaluational religion.
The point here is that rigid fundamentalism
and chiliastic dogmatism are linked to the
same underlying characteristics, attitudes,
and predispositions, which find another outlet in allegiance to authoritarian political
movements.
In his excellent study of the sources of
Swedish communism, Sven Rydenfelt demonstrates the competitive relationship between religious and political extremism. He
analyzed the differences between two northern counties of Sweden, Vasterbotten and
Norrbotten, in an attempt to explain the
relatively low Communist vote in the former
(two per cent) and the much larger vote
in the latter county (21 per cent), although
both have comparable social and economic
conditions. The Liberal Party, which in
Sweden gives much more support than any
other to religious extremism, was very
strong in Vasterbotten (30 per cent) and
correspondingly weak in Norrbotten (nine
available, this assumption would help to account
for the lack of tolerance of factionalism within these
sects, and for the endless schisms, with the new
groups as intolerant as the old, since the splits
usually occur over the issue of whose intolerant
views and methods shall prevail.
27 See Isaac Deutscher,
The Prophet Armed,
Trotsky, 1879-1921, London: Oxford University
Press, 1954, pp. 30-31.
28 Sven Rydenfelt, Kommunismen i Sverige. En
Samhallsvetenskaplig Studie, Kund: Gleerupska Universitetsbokhandeln, 1954, pp. 296, 336-337; and
Wiardi Beckman Institute, Verkiezingen in Nederland, Amsterdam: 1951, mimeographed, pp. 15, 9394.
489
TABLE
3.
THE
BETWEEN
RELATIONSHIP
OCCUPATION, EDUCATION,
UNITED STATES, 1955 *
AND POLITICAL TOLERANCE IN THE
Percentage in the Two "Most Tolerant" Categories

Occupation
Grade School
Some High School
High School Grad.
Some College
College Grad.
13
32
40
-
21
33
48
64
(228)
( 99)
( 64)
( 14)
( 3)
High White Collar
Low White Collar
High Manual
Low Manual
Education
23
29
47
64
74
(178)
(124)
(127)
( 36)
( 11)
26
46
56
65
83
( 47)
( 56)
(102)
( 80)
(147)
(100)
( 68)
(108)
( 37)
( 21)
* Computed from IBM cards supplied by Samuel Stouffer from his study, Communism, Conformity and
Civil Liberties, New York: Doubleday, 1955.
per cent). Rydenfelt concludes that a general predisposition toward radicalism existed
in both counties, containing some of the
poorest, most socially isolated, and rootless groups in Sweden, but that the expression of radicalism differed, taking a religious
form in one county, and a Communistin the
other. "The Communists and the religious
radicals, as for instance the Pentecostal
sects, seem to be competing for the allegiance
of the same groups."29
THE TYPICAL SOCIAL SITUATION
LOWER-CLASS
OF
PERSONS
A number of elements in the typical social

situation of lower-class individuals may be
singled out as contributing to authoritarian
predispositions: low education, low participation in political organizations or in voluntary organizationsof any type, little reading,
isolated occupations, economic insecurity,
and anthoritarian family patterns. Although these elements are interrelated, they
are by no means identical.
There is consistent evidence that degree
of formal education, itself closely correlated
with social and economic status, is also
highly correlated with undemocratic attitudes. Data from Stouffer'sstudy of attitudes
toward civil liberties in America and from
the UNESCO Research Institute's survey of
German opinion bearing on a multi-party
29 See W. Phillips Davison's extensive review of
Rydenfelt, op. cit., in the Public Opinion Quarterly,
18 (Winter, 1954-55), pp. 375-388; quoted at p.
382. Note that the total "extremist" vote in the
two counties was almost identical, 30 and 32 per
cent.
TABLE
4.
THE
EDUCATION,
PARTY
BETWEEN
RELATIONSHIP
AND
SUPPORT
IN
SYSTEM
OF
OCCUPATION,
DEMOCRATIC
GERMANY-1953
Per Cent Favoring the

Existence of Several Parties
Educational Level
Occupation
Elementary
School
Farm Laborers
Manual Workers
Farmers
Lower White Collar
Self-Employed Business
Upper White Collar
Officials (Govt.)
Professions
29
43
43
50
53
58
59
56
High School
or Higher
( 59)
(1439)
( 381)
( 273)
( 365)
( 86)
(158)
( 18)
52 ( 29)
67 ( 9)
68 (107)
65 ( 75)
69 ( 58)
78 ( 99)
68 ( 38)
*Source: see Table 1.
system presented in Tables 3 and 4 reveal

this clearly.
These tables indicate that an increase in
educational attainment has the effect of raising the proportionof democraticattitudes at
each occupational level. Within each educational level, higher occupational status also
seems to make for greater tolerance, but the
increases associated with higher educational
level are greater than those related to higher
occupational level, when the other factor is
held constant.30 It may be inferred that
30 A study based on a national sample of Americans reported that education made no difference in
the extent of authoritarian responses on an "authoritarian personality" scale among workers, but that
higher educational attainment reduced such responses among the middle-class. The well-educated
upper-middle class were least "authoritarian."
Morris Janowitz and Dwaine Marvick, "Authori-
490
and xenophobic than those who vote and

have political interests.36
The authors of a study concerned with
the "hard core" of "chronic know-nothings"
suggest that such persons come disproportionately from the less-literate, lower socioeconomic groups. These people are not only
uninformed, but "harder to reach, no mattolerance.3'
Low-status groups also participate less in ter what the level or nature of the informaformal organizations, read fewer magazines tion." Here again is a hint at the complex
and books regularly, possess less information character of the relations between educaon public affairs, vote less, and, in general, tion, liberalism, and status. Non-economic
are less interested in politics.32The available liberalism is not a simple matter of acquirevidence suggests that each of these at- ing education and information; it must be
tributes is related to democratic attitudes. considered at least in part a basic attitude
Thus, an analysis of German data collected which is actively discouraged by the social
by the UNESCO Institute in 1953 found situation of lower-status persons.37As Knupthat at every occupational level those who fer has pointed out in her review of the
belonged to voluntary associations were more literature bearing on the "underdog," "ecolikely to favor a multi-party than a one- nomic underprivilegeis psychological underparty system.33 American findings also indi- privilege: habits of submission, little access
cate that authoritarians join fewer "com- to sources of information, lack of verbal
These things appear to produce a
munity groups" than non-authoritarians.34 facility.
lack of self-confidence which increases the
A study of the determinants of economic
unwillingness of the low-status person to
and non-economic liberalism reports that on participate in many phases of our predomevery occupational level the persons poorly inantly middle-class culture.
3" 8
informed on public questions are more likely
These characteristicsalso reflect the extent
to be both more radical on economic issues to which lower-class persons are isolated
and less liberal on non-economic issues.35 from the activities, controversies, and organNon-voters and those less interested in izations of democratic society, an isolation
political matters are much more intolerant which prevents them from securing that sophisticated and complex view of the political
tarianism and Political Behavior," Public Opinion structure which makes understandable and
Quarterly, 17 (Summer, 1953), pp. 195-196.
necessary the norms of tolerance. It is in31 The independent effect of education even when
other social factors are least favorable has especial structive to examine in this connection those
long-range significance in view of the rising educa- occupationswhich are most isolated, in every
tional level of the population. Kornhauser and his sense, from contact with the world outside
associates found that auto workers with an eighth their own occupational group. We should
the quality of the educational experience is

more highly associated with political tolerance than occupational experience per se.
But both inferior education and low occupational position are highly intercorrelated,
both are part of the complex making up
low-status, and are associated with a lack of
grade education were more authoritarian than those

with more education. See Arthur Kornhauser, A. L.
Sheppard, and A. J. Mayer, When Labor Votes,
New York: University Books, 1956, for further
data on variations on authoritarianism within a
working-class sample.
32 The research showing that such factors as
education, status, and income (themselves components of an overall class or status index) are
associated with political participation is summarized
in Robert E. Lane, Political Life, Glencoe, Ill.: Free
Press, 1959.
33 Data computed for this study.
34F. H. Sanford, Authoritarianism and Leadership, Philadelphia: Stevenson Brothers, 1950, p. 168.
See also Mirra Komarovsky, "The Voluntary Associations of Urban Dwellers," American Sociological
Review, 11 (December, 1946), p. 688.
35Smith, op. cit., p. 71.
36 G. M. Connelly
and H. H. Field, "The NonVoter, Who He Is, and What He Thinks," Public
Opinion Quarterly, 8 (Summer, 1944), p. 179;
Samuel Stouffer, op. cit.; Sanford, op. cit., p. 168;
M. Janowitz and D. Marvick, op. cit., p. 200.
37 See Herbert Hyman and Paul B. Sheatsley,
"Some Reasons Why Information Campaigns Fail,"
Public Opinion Quarterly, 11 (Fall, 1947), p. 413.
A recent survey of material on voluntary association memberships is contained in Charles L. Wright
and Herbert Hyman, "Voluntary Association Memberships of American Adults: Evidence from National Sample Surveys," American Sociological Review, 23 (June, 1958), pp. 284-294.
38 Genevieve Knupfer, "Portrait of the Underdog," Public Opinion Quarterly, 11 (Spring, 1947),
p. 114.
expect that persons in these occupations will
support extremist movementsand exhibit low
political tolerance. Such in fact is the case.
Manual workers in "isolated occupations"
which require them to live among their
workmates in one-industry towns or areasfor example, miners, maritime workers, loggers, fishermen, and sheep shearers-all exhibit high rates of Communist support in
most countries.39
Similarly, rural persons, both farmers and
laborers, show high authoritarianpredispositions. All public opinion surveys indicate
that they oppose civil liberties and multiparty systems more than any other occupational group. Election surveys indicate farm
owners to have been among the strongest
supporters of Fascist parties, while farm
workersand poor farmersand share-croppers
have given even stronger backing to the
Communistsin Italy, France, and India, for
example, than have manual workers.40
39 The greatest amount of comparative material
is available on the miners. For Britain, see Herbert
G. Nicholas, British General Election of 1950, London: Macmillan, 1951, pp. 318, 342, 361. For the
United States, see Paul F. Brissenden, The IWW,
A Study of American Syndicalism, New York:
Columbia University Press, 1920, p. 74; and Harold
Gosnell, Grass Roots Politics, Washington, D. C.:
American Council on Public Affairs, 1942, pp. 31-32.
For France, see Franqois Goguel, "Geographie des
elections sociales de 1950-1," Revue Francaise de
science politique, 3 (April-June, 1953), pp. 246271. For Germany, see Ossip K. Flectheim, Die Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands in der Weimarer
Republik, Offenbach am Main: Bollwerk-Verlag,
Karl Drott, 1948, p. 211. Data are also available for
Australia, Scandinavia, Spain, and Chile.
Isolation has also been linked with the differential
propensity to strike of different industries. Violent
strikes having the character of a mass grievance
against society as a whole occur most often in isolated industries, and probably have their origins in
the same social situations producing authoritarianism. See Clark Kerr and Abraham Siegel, "The
Interindustry Propensity to Strike: An International Comparison," in A. Kornhauser, R. Dubin,
and A. M. Ross, editors, Industrial Conflict, New
York: McGraw Hill, 1954, pp. 189-212.
40 According to Friedrich, agricultural groups are
more emotionally nationalistic and potentially authoritarian politically because the "rural population
is more
number
homogeneous,
. . . it contains a smaller
of outsiders and foreigners, . . . it has
much less contact with foreign countries and peoples,

and finally,
. . . its mobility
is much more limited."
See Carl Friedrich, "The Agricultural Basis of Emotional Nationalism," Public Opinion Quarterly, 1
(April, 1937), pp. 50-51. See also Rudolf Heberle,
491
The same social conditions which are related to unsophistication and authoritarianism among workers are also associated with
middle-class authoritarianism. The groups
which have been most prone to support
Fascist and other middle-class based extremist ideologies have been, in addition to
farmers and peasants, the small businessmen
of provincial communities. These groups are
isolated from "cosmopolitan" culture and
also rank far lower than any other nonmanual occupational group in educational
attainment.4'
If elements which contribute to a lack of

sophistication and detachment from the general cultural values constitute an important
factor associated with lower-class authoritarian proclivities, a second and no less important factor is a relative lack of economic
and psychological security. Economic uncertainty, unemployment, and fluctuation in
total income all increase with moves down
the socio-economic ladder. White collar
workers, even those who receive no more pay
than skilled manual workers, are less likely
to suffer the tensions created by fear of loss
of income. Studies of marital instability
indicate clearly that family tension is closely
correlated with low income and financial insecurity. Economic insecurity clearly affects
the political and attitudinal responses of
groups.42High states of tension encourage
From Democracy to Nazism: A Regional Case
Study of Political Parties in Germany, Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1945, pp.
32 ff., for a discussion of the appeal of Nazism to
the German rural population; and K. Kido and M.
Sugi, op. cit., for similar findings in Japan. For
references to materials on rural Communism, see
Lipset, Political Man, op. cit.
41 Statistical data indicate that German and Austrian Nazism, contemporary Italian Neo-Fascism,
French Poujadism, and American McCarthyism
have all drawn their heaviest non-rural support
from the less educated small businessmen of provincial small communities. See "Fascism: Left,
Right and Center," in Lipset, Political Man, op. cit.,
Chapter 5.
42 In addition
to the "normal" insecurity of
lower-class existence, special conditions which uproot
people from a stable community life and upset the
social supports of their traditional values make them
receptive to extremist chiliastic ideologies which
help to redefine their world. I have discussed the
evidence linking the discontinuities and rootlessness
flowing from rapid industrialization and urbanization on the politics of workers in different countries
in "Socialism: Left and Right," op. cit. Rydenfelt,
492
immediate alleviation through the venting of

hostility against a scape-goat, the search for
a short-termsolution by support of extremist
groups, or both. Considerableresearchindicates that the unemployed are less tolerant
towards minorities than the employed, are
more likely to be Communists if they are
workers, and to be Nazis if they are middle
class. Those industries with many Communists among their employees are also characterized by a large amount of economic
instability.
The insecurities and tensions which flow
directly from economic instability are reinforced by the particular patterns of family
life associated with the lower strata. There
is more direct frustration and aggression in
the day-to-day lives of members of the lower
classes, both children and the adults. A comprehensive review of the many studies made
in the past 25 years of child-rearingpatterns
in the United States reports that their "most
consistent finding" is the "more frequent use
of physical punishment by working-class
parents. The middle-class, in contrast, resorts to reasoning, isolation, and . . . 'loveoriented' techniques of discipline....
Such
parents are more likely to overlook offenses,
and when they do punish they are less likely
to ridicule or inflict physical pain."43Thelink
between such practices in lower-classfamilies
and adult hostility and authoritarianism is
suggested by the findings of investigations in
Boston and Detroit that physical punishments for aggression, characteristic of the
in his study of Swedish Communism, suggests that
"rootlessness" is a characteristic of individuals and
occupations with high Communist voting records;
see Davison, op. cit., p. 378. It is interesting to note
that Engels also called attention in the 1890s to
the fact that chiliastic religions and social movements, including the revolutionary socialist one,
attracted all the deviants, those without a place
in society: e.g., "all the elements which had been
set free, i.e., at a loose end, by the dissolution of
the old world came one after the other into the orbit
of [early] Christianity. . . . [as today] all throng
to the working-class parties in all countries."
Engels, op. cit., pp. 319-320. See also Almond, op.
cit., p. 236; and Hadley Cantril, The Psychology of
Social Movements, New York: Wiley, 1941, Chapters
8 and 9.
43 Urie Bronfenbrenner, "Socialization and Social
Class Through Time and Space," in E. E. Maccoby,
T. M. Newcomb, and E. L. Hartley, editors, Readings in Social Psychology, New York: Henry Holt,
1958, p. 419.
working class, tend to increase rather than

decrease aggressive behavior.44
THE PERSPECTIVES
OF LOWER-CLASS
GROUPS
Acceptance of the norms of democracy requiries a high level of sophistication and ego
security. The less sophisticated and stable an
individual, the more likely he is to favor a
simplified and demonologicalview of politics,
to fail to understand the rationale underlying
the tolerance of those with whom he disagrees, and to find difficulty in grasping or
tolerating a gradualist image of political
change. Lack of sophistication and psychic
insecurity, then, are basic "intervening variables" which clarify the empirical association between authoritarianattitudes and low
status.
Several studies focusing on various aspects
of working-class life and culture have emphasized different components of an unsophisticated perspective. Greater suggestibility, absence of a sense of past and future,
inability to take a complex view, difficulty in
abstracting from concrete experience, and
lack of imagination each have been singled
out as characteristic products of low status.
All may be considered as interrelated indices of a more or less general lack of sophistication and ego stability, and also as part of
the complex psychological basis of authoritarianism.
Suggestibility has been presented by one
student of social movements as a major
explanatory concept with which to account
for participation in diverse extremist movements.45The two conditions for suggestibility
are both characteristicof low-status persons:
lack of an adequate mental context, and a
fixed mental context (a term of Hadley Cantril's, meaning "frame of reference" or
"general perspective"). A poorly developed
mental context reflects a limited education:
a paucity of the rich associations which provide a basis for critical evaluation of experience. A fixed mental context-in a sense.
44 Some hint of the complex of psychological factors underlying lower-class authoritarianism is given
in one study which reports a relationship between
overt hostility and authoritarianism. See Saul M.
Siegel, "The Relationship of Hostility to Authoritarianism," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 52 (May, 1956), pp. 386-372.
45 Cantril, op. cit., p. 65.
the opposite side of the coin-reflects the
tendency to elevate whatever general principles are learned to absolutes which are
difficult to correct by experience.
Richard Hoggart, with reference to
Britain, notes the same point. Low-status
persons, he explains, without rich and flexible mental context are likely to lack a
developed sense of the past and future:
Theireducationis unlikelyto haveleft them
with any historicalpanoramaor with any idea
of a continuingtradition.. . . A great many
people, though they may possess a considerableamountof disconnectedinformation,have
little idea of an historicalor ideologicalpattern or process.. . . With little intellectualor
culturalfurniture,with little trainingin the
testing of opposingviews against reasonand
existing judgments, judgments are usually
made accordingto the promptingsof those
group-apophthegms
which come first to mind.
. . . Similarly,there can be little real sense
of the future. . . . Such a mind is, I think,
particularlyaccessible to the temptationto
live in a constantpresent.46
This concern with the present leads to
a concentration on daily activities, without
much inner reflection, imaginative planning
of one's future, or abstract thinking. One of
the few studies of lower-class children utilizing projective techniques reports:
... these youngpeopleare makingan adjustment which is orientatedtowardthe outside
worldratherthan one whichrests on a developing acquaintancewith their own impulses
and the handlingof these impulsesby fantasy
andintrospection.... They do not have a rich
inner life, indeedtheir imaginativeactivity is
meagreand limited. . . . When faced with a
new situation, the subjects tend to react
rapidly,and they do not alter their original
impressionsof the situationwhich is seen as
a crudewholewith little intellectualdiscrimination of components.47
493
Working-class life as a whole, and not

merely the character of perception and imagination, has been seen as concrete and immediate. As Hoggart puts it, "if we want
to capture something of the essence of working-class life . . . we must say that it is the
'dense and concrete' life, a life whose main
stress is on the intimate, the sensory, the
detailed and the personal. This would no
doubt be true of working-class groups anywhere in the world."48 Hoggart sees the
concreteness of the perceptions of workingclass people as a main difference from those
of middle-class people, who more easily meet
abstract and general questions. He identifies
the sharp British working-class distinction
between "Us" and "Them" as:
. . .part of a more generalcharacteristicof
the outlookof most working-classpeople.To
come to terms with the world of 'Them'involves, in the end, all kinds of political and
social questions,and leads eventuallybeyond
politicsand social philosophyto metaphysics.
The questionof howwe face 'Them'(whoever
'They' are) is, at last, the question of how
we stand in relationto anythingnot visibly
and intimatelypart of our local universe.The
working-classsplittingof the world into 'Us'
and 'Them'is on this side a symptomof their
difficultyin meetingabstractor generalquestions.49
Hoggart is careful to emphasize that probably most persons in any social class are
uninterested in general ideas, but still "training in the handling of ideas or in analysis"
is far more characteristic of the demands of
middle-class parents and occupations.50
A recent discussion of variations in the
conceptual apparatus of the different classes,
which analyzes sources of variations in so-
48 Hoggart, op. cit., p. 88. This kind of life, as

with other social characteristics, has different consequences for different areas of society and social
46 Hoggart, op. cit., pp. 158-159.
existence. It may be argued (contrary to my own
47 B. M. Spinley,The Deprivedand the Privileged, views) that this capacity to establish personal relaLondon: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953, pp. 115- tionships, to live in the present, may be more
116. These conclusions are based on Rorschach tests "healthy" (in a strictly mental-health sense) than
given to 60 slum area children. The last point is a middle-class concern with status distinctions, one's
related to that made by another British scholar that own personal impact on one's life situation, and
working-class persons are not as likely as those a preoccupation with the uncertain future. But in
with middle-class backgrounds to perceive the terms of political consequences, the problem of
structure of an object, involving thought on a concern here, this same action-oriented, nonmore abstract level of relationships, but have an intellectualistic aspect of working-class life seems
action-oriented reaction to the content of an object. to prevent awareness of the realities of long-term
For further discussion of this point, see B. Bernstein, social and economic trends simply because such
"Some Sociological Determinants of Perception," awareness requires abstraction and generalization.
The British Journal of Sociology, 9 (June, 1958),
49
pp. 160 ff.
50
Ibid., p. 86.
Idem.
494
cial mobility, also emphasizes the ways in

which the different family patterns of the
middle and working classes affect their
authoritarianism.The author, B. Bernstein,
points out that the middle-class parent
stresses "an awareness of the importance
between means and long-term ends, cognitively and effectually regarded... [and has]
the ability to adopt appropriatemeasures to
implement the attainment of distant ends by
a purposeful means-end chain.... The child
in the middle-classes and associated levels
grows up in an environment which is finely
and extensively controlled; the space, time
and social relationships are explicitly regulated within and outside the family group."51
But while the middle-class child is led to
understand the need to defer immediate
gratifications for long-term advantages, the
situation in the working-class family is
quite different:
The working-classfamily structureis less
formally organizedthan the middle-classin
relation to the development of the child.
Althoughthe authoritywithin the family is
explicit the values which'it expressesdo not
give rise to the carefully ordered universe
spatially and temporallyof the middle-class
child. The exercise of authoritywill not be
related to a stable system of rewardsand
punishmentsbut may often appeararbitrary.
The specificcharacterof long-termgoalstends
to be replacedby moregeneralnotionsof the
future, in which chance, a friend or a relative plays a greater part than the rigorous
workingout of connections.Thus present,or
near-presentactivities,havegreatervaluethan
the relationof the presentactivity to the attainment of a distant goal. The system of
expectancies,or the time-spanof anticipation,
is shortenedand this createsdifferentsets of
preferences,goals, and dissatisfactions.The
environmentlimits the perceptionof the developingchild of and in time. Presentgratifications or presentdeprivationsbecome absolute gratificationsor absolutedeprivationsfor
there exists no developed time continuum
upon which present activity can be ranged.
Relative to the middle-classes,the postponement of presentpleasurefor future gratifications will be found difficult.By implication
a more volatile patterningof affectual and
expressivebehaviorwill be foundin the working-classes.52
This concern with the immediately perceivable, with the personal and concrete, is
part and parcel of the short time-perspective
51 Bernstein, op. cit., pp. 161, 165.
52 Ibid., p. 168 (italics added).
and the inability to perceive the complex

possibilities and consequences of actions
which is referred to above as a lack of
social sophistication. It is associated with
some fundamental characteristics of low
status, and often eventuates in a readiness
to support extremist political and religious
movements, and in a generally lower level
of liberalism on non-economic questions.53
Within extremist movements, these differences in the perceptions and perspectives
of working-class persons affect their experiences, ease of recruitment, and reasons for
defecting. Almond's study of 221 ex-Communists in four countries provides some data
on this point. He distinguishes between the
esotericc" (simple, for mass consumption)
and "esoteric" (complex, for the inner circle)
doctrines of the party. "Relatively few working-class respondents had been exposed to
the esoteric doctrine of the party before
joining, and ... they tended to remain unindoctrinated while in the party," in contrast
with the middle-class members.54 Middleclass recruits who were potentially capable
of absorbing a complex doctrine nevertheless
"tended to come to the party with more complex value patterns and expectations which
were more likely to obstruct assimilation into
the party.... The working-classmember, on
the other hand, is relatively untroubled by
doctrinal apparatus, less exposed to the
media of communication, and his imagination and logical powers are relatively
undeveloped."55
One aspect of the lack of sophistication
and education of lower-class persons is their
53 This hypothesis has suggestive implications for
a theory of trade union democracy, and possible
strains within trade union organizational life. Working-class union members may not be nearly as
concerned with dictatorial union leadership as are
middle-class critics who assume that the rank-andfile would actively form factions and critically evaluate union policies if they were not constrained by
a monolithic structure imposed by the top leadership. On the other hand, the more educated, articulate staff members (on a union newspaper, for
example) may desire to include more literate and
complex discussions of issues facing the union but
may be constrained by the need to present simple,
easily understood propagandistic slogans for rankand-file consumption. The "house-organ" type of
union newspaper may not be due entirely to internal political necessities.
54
Almond,op. cit., p. 244.

177.
55 Ibid., p.
495
recruits,and to the difficultiesof assimilation

anti-intellectualism (a phenomenonnoted by
into the partygenerallyexperiencedby middleEngels long ago as a problem faced by workclasspartymembers.58
ing-class movements). While the complex
esoteric ideology of Communism may have
THE MAIN FINDINGS RESTATED
been a principal feature drawing middleclass persons to it, the fundamental antiTo sum up, the lower-class individual is
intellectualism of extremist movements has more likely to have been exposed to punishbeen a source of strain for their "genuine" ment, lack of love, and a general atmosphere
intellectuals, who find it difficult to view of tension and aggression since early childthe world in black or white terms. In the hood, experiences which often produce
CommunistParty, these class differencesare deep-rooted hostilities expressed by ethnic
reflected in the fact that the working-class prejudice, political authoritarianism, and
rank-and-file are least likely to become dis- chiliastic transvaluational religion. His eduturbed by ideological shifts, and least likely cational attainment is less than that of men
to defect.56 Their commitment, once estab- with higher socio-economic status, and his
lished, cannot as easily be shaken by a association as a child with others of similar
sudden realization that the Party, after all, background not only fails to stimulate his
does not conform to liberal and humanistic intellectual interests but also creates an atvalues, as can the commitment of middle- mosphere which prevents his educational
class members, who usually joined for dif- experience from increasing his general social
ferent reasons and values and maintain a sophistication and his understanding of difmore complex view both of their own lives ferent groups and ideas. Leaving school
and of politics.
relatively early, he is surroundedon the job
Some evidence of the differential recep- by others with a similar restricted cultural,
tivity of leftist parties to middle- and work- educational, and family background. Little
ing-class persons may be seen in the leader- external influence impinges on his limited
ship composition of Socialist and Communist environment to increase his connections with
Parties. The former have been led by a the larger world and to heighten his sophishigher proportion of intellectuals, in spite of tication. From early childhood,he has sought
an original ideological emphasis on main- immediate gratificationsin favor of activities
taining a working-class orientation. The which might have long-term rewards. The
Communists, on the other hand, tend to logic of both his adult employment and his
alienate their intellectual leaders and to be family situation reinforces this limited timeled by those with preponderantly working- perspective. As North has well put it, isolaclass occupations.57Almond's study of the tion from heterogeneous environments, characteristic of low-status, operates to "limit the
Appeals of Communismconcludes:
of information, to retard the developsource
. . . while the party is open to all comers,
working-class
partymembershavebetterpros- ment of efficiencyin judgment and reasoning
pects of successin the partythanmiddle-class abilities, and to confine the attention to more
recruits.This is probablydue both to party trivial interests in life." 59 All of these charpolicy, which has always manifestedgreater acteristics combine to produce a tendency to
confidencein the reliabilityof working-class
view politics, as well as personal relationships, in black-and-white terms, a desire for
56 Ibid., pp. 313 ff., 392.
immediate action without critical reflection,
57 For French data from 1936 to 1956 see Mattei
Dogan, "Les Candidats et les elus," in L'Associa- impatience with talk and discussion, lack
tion Franqaise de science politique, Les Elections
du 2 janvier, Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1956,
p. 462, and "L'origine sociale du personnel parlementaire Francais," in Maurice Duverger, editor,
Partiespolitiqueset classessocialesen France,Paris:

Librairie Armand Colin, 1955, pp. 291-329. For a
comparison of German Social Democratic and Communist parliamentary leadership before Hitler see
Viktor Engelhardt, "Die Zusammensatzung des
Reichstage nach Alter, Beruf, und Religionsbekenntnis," Die Arbeit, 8 (January, 1931), p. 34.
58 Almond, op. cit., p. 190. This statement is

supported by analysis of the biographies of 123
Central Committee leaders of the Party in three
countries, as well as by interviews with 221 exCommunists (both leaders and rank-and-file members) in four countries, France, Italy, Great Britain,
and the United States.
59 C. C. North, Social Differentiation, Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1926,
p. 247.
496
of interest in organizations which have a

long-range gradualistic political perspective,
and a readiness to follow leaders who offer
a demonological interpretation of the presumably conspiratorial forces, either religious or political.60
It is interesting to note that Lenin saw
the character of the lower classes and the
tasks of those who would lead them in terms
similar to those presented in this paper. He
specified as the chief task of the Communist
parties the leadership of the broad masses,
who are "slumbering, apathetic, hidebound,
inert, and dormant"-a picture borne out by
the data presented here. These masses, said
Lenin, must be aligned for the "final and
decisive battle" (a term reminiscent of
Armageddon) by the Party which alone can
present an unequivocal, uncompromising,
unified view of the world, and an immediate
program for drastic change. In contrast to
"effective" Communist leadership, Lenin
pointed to the democratic parties and their
leadership as "vacillating, wavering, unstable" elements, a characterization that is
probably valid for any political group lacking ultimate certainty in its program and
willing to grant legitimacy to opposition
groups.6'
The political outcome of these predispositions, however, as suggested above, is
not determinedby the multiplicity of factors
bearing upon the development of authoritarian predispositions. Isolation, a punishing
childhood, economicand occupationalinsecurities, and a lack of sophistication are con-
Thus far this paper has been concerned

with the authoritarian proclivities of lowerstatus groups. One proposition which has
been drawn from the analysis is that the lack
of a complex and rich frame of reference,
a tendency to view events from a concrete
and short-termperspective, is the vital intervening variable between low status and a
predisposition toward transvaluational extremist religion or politics. The proposition,
however, does not simply suggest that the
lower strata will be authoritarian; it implies
that other things being equal, they will
choose the least complex alternative. If we
60 Most of these characteristics have been cited

by psychologists as typical of adolescent attitudes
and perspectives. Werner Cohn, in "Jehovah's Witnesses as a Proletarian Movement," The American
Scholar, 24 (Summer, 1955), pp. 281-299, considers
youth movements as a prototype of all such
"proletarian" movements. Both "adolescence fixation and anomie are causal conditions" of their
development (p. 297), and all such organizations
have an "aura of social estrangement." (p. 282).
61 V. I. Lenin, Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder, New York: International Publishers, 1940, pp. 74-75. Lenin's point, originally
made in his pamphlet, What Is to Be Done?, that
workers left to themselves would never develop
socialist or class consciousness in place of economic
"day to day" consciousness unless an organized
group of revolutionary intellectuals brought them
a broader vision, is similar to the generalizations
presented here concerning the limited time perspective of the lower strata.
62 Various studies
indicate that lower-class individuals in the United States who are non-voters
and who have little political interest tend to reject
the democratic norms of tolerance. See Stouffer,
op. cit., and Connelly and Field, op. cit., p. 182.
Studies of the behavior of the unemployed in countries in which extremist movements have been weak,
such as the United States and Britain, indicate that
apathy was their characteristic political response.
See, e.g., E. W. Bakke, Citizens Without Work, New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1940, pp. 46-70. On
the other hand, German data indicate correlations
between working-class unemployment and support
of Communists and between middle-class unemployment and support of Nazis. In France, Italy,
and Finland today, those who have been unemployed
tend to back the large Communist parties. See S. M.
Lipset, "Socialism: Left and Right," op. cit., p. 181;
and Erik Allardt, Social Struktur Och Politisk
Aktivitet, Helsingfors: Soderstrom and C: o Forlagsaktiebolag, 1956, pp. 84-85.
ducive both to withdrawal, or even apathy,

and to strong mobilization of hostile predispositions. The same underlying factors
which predispose individuals toward support
of extremist movements under certain conditions may result in withdrawal from political activity and concern under other conditions. Lack of information, social isolation,
little participation in groups outside of one's
immediate circle, a short-term time perspective, which generally characterize the lower
strata, are associated both with low levels
of political interest and involvement (while
maintaining authoritarianattitudes) in "normal" non-crisis periods and with action in
an extremist direction when those underlying
predispositions are activated by a crisis and
millenial appeals.62
EXTREMISM
AS A COMPLEX ALTERNATIVE:
A TEST OF AN HYPOTHESIS
can find situations in which extremist politics
represents the more complex rather than the
less complex form of transvaluational politics, we should expect low status to be associated with opposition to such movements
and parties.
A situation in which an extremist movement is the more complex alternative exists
wherever the Communist Party is a small
party competing against a large reformist
party, as in England, the United States,
Sweden, and Norway. Where the Party is
small and weak, it can not hold out the
promise of immediate changes in the situation of the most deprived. Rather, such small
extremist parties usually present the fairly
complex intellectual argument that tendencies inherent in the social and economic
system will strengthen them in the long
run.63For the poorer worker, support of the
Swedish Social-Democrats, the British Labor
Party, or the American New Deal is a simpler and more easily understood way of
securing redress of grievances or improvement of social conditions than supporting an
electorally insignificant Communist Party.
The available evidence from countries such
as Norway, Sweden, Canada, Brazil, and
Great Britain suggests the validity of this
interpretation. In these countries, where the
Communist Party is small and a Labor or
Socialist Party is much larger, the support
of the Communists is stronger among the
better-paid and more skilled workers than it
is among the less skilled and poorer strata.64
63 Recent research on the
early sources of support for the Nazi Party challenges the hypothesis
that it was the apathetic who came to its support
prior to 1930, when it still represented a complex,
long-range alternative. A negative rank-order correlation was found between the per-cent increase
in the Nazi vote and the increase in the proportion
voting, in the German election districts between
1928 and 1930. Only after it had become a relatively large party did National Socialism recruit
the previously apathetic, who then could see its
immediate potential. For a report of this research,
see Lipset, Political Man, op. cit.
64 For Norway, see Allen Barton, Sociological and
Psychological Implications of Economics Planning
in Norway, Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1957;
and several surveys of voting behavior in Norway
conducted by a Norwegian poll organization including the 1949 FAKTA Survey, and the February,
1954, and April, 1956, NGI Survey, the results of
which are as yet unpublished. Data from the files
of the Canadian Gallup Poll for 1945, 1949, and
497
In Italy, France, and Finland, where the

Communists are the largest party on the
left, the lower the income level of workers,
the higher their Communist vote.65 A comparison of the differences in the relative
income position of workers who vote SocialDemocratic and those who back the Communists in two neighboring Scandinavian
countries, Finland and Sweden, shows these
alternative patterns clearly (see Table 5). 6
These assumptions concerning the relationship between Communiststrength, differential time perspective involved in support
of the party, and variations in the social base
of its electoral appeal hold up for all countries for which data exist.67 Data from one
1953 indicate that the Labor-Progressive (Communist) Party drew more support from the skilled
than the unskilled sections of the working class.
For Brazil, see A. Simao, "O voto operario em Sao
Paulo," Revista Brasilieras estudos politicos, 1
(August, 1956), pp. 130-141.
65 For a table giving precise statistics for Italy
and France, see S. M. Lipset, "Socialism: Left and
Right, East and West," op. cit., p. 182. In preHitler Germany, where the Communists were a
large party, they also secured their electoral strength
much more from the less skilled sections of the
workers than from the more skilled. See Samuel
Pratt, The Social Basis of Nazism and Communism
in Urban Germany, M.A. thesis, Michigan State College, 1948, pp. 156 ff.
66 In Finland, where the Communists are very
strong, their support is drawn disproportionately
from the poorer workers, while in Sweden, where
the Communists are a minor party, they have considerably more success with the better paid and
more skilled workers than they do with the unskilled and lowly paid. Or, to present the same
data in another way, in Finland 41 per cent of all
workers earning less than 100 markkas a month
vote Communist, as compared with only 12 per cent
among those earning over 600 markkas. In Sweden,
7 per cent of the workers earning less than 2,000
kronen a year vote Communist, as compared with
25 per cent among those earning over 8,000.
67 It may be noted, parenthetically, that where
the Socialist Party is small and/or new, it also
represents a complex alternative, and attracts more
middle-class support proportionately than when it
is a well-established mass party which can offer
immediate reforms. On the other hand, when a
small transvaluational group does not offer an
intellectually complex alternative, it should draw
disproportionate support from the lower strata.
Such groups are the sectarian religions whose
millenial appeals have no developed rationale. Some
slight evidence on this point in a political context
is available from a recent Norwegian poll which
shows the composition of support for various
parties. Only 11 persons supporting the Christian
party, which appeals to the more fundamentalist
498
TABLE
5. THE INCOME
COMPOSITION
OF THE WORKING-CLASS
COMMUNIST
SUPPORT OF THE SocIAL-DEMocRATIC
PARTIES IN FINLAND
Sweden-1946
Finland-1956
Income Class
in Markkas
Social
Democrats
Communists
8%
49
22
21
(173)
13%o
50
29
8
(119)
Under 100
100-400
400-600
600 +
N
AND
AND SWEDEN *
Income Class
in Kronen
Social
Democrats
Communists
Under 2,000
2,001-4,000
4,001-6,000
6,001 +
14%
40
32
14
(5176)
8%
38
30
24
(907)
* The Finnish data were secured from a special run made for this study by the Finnish Gallup Poll.
The Swedish statistics were recomputed from data presented in Elis Hastad, et al., editors, "Gallup" och
den Svenska Valjarkaren, Uppsala: Hugo Gebers Forlag, 1950, pp. 175-176. Both studies include rural and
urban workers.
other country, India, offer even better evidence for the hypothesis, however, because
they permit a comparison of variations in
electoral strength within a single country,
and also because these data were located
after the hypothesis was formulated and
Lutherans who are comparable to those in Sweden
discussed earlier, were included in the total sample,
but 82 per cent (nine) of these came from lowerincome groups (less than 10,000 kronen per year).
In comparison, 57 per cent of the 264 Labor Party
supporters and 39 per cent of the 21 Communist
supporters earned 10,000 kronen or more. Thus the
small Communist Party as the most complex transvaluational alternative drew its backing from relatively high strata, while the fundamentalist Christians appeared to have the economically poorest
social base of any party in the country. See the NGI
Survey of February, 1954, issued in December, 1956,
in preliminary mimeographed form.
thus can be considered an independent replication.

In India, the Communists are a major
party, constituting the government or the
major opposition (with 25 per cent or more
of the votes) in two states, Kerala and
Andhra. While it has substantial strength
in some other states, it is much weaker in
the rest of India. If the proposition is valid
that Communist appeal should be relatively
greater among the lower and uneducated
strata where the Party is powerful, and proportionately stronger among the higher and
better educated ones where it is weak,
the characteristics of Party voters should
vary greatly in different parts of India.
This is precisely what Table 6 shows.
Where the Indian Communist Party is
small, its support, like that of the two
TABLE 6. COMMUNIST AND SOCIALISTPREFERENCESIN INDIA, BY CLASS AND EDUCATION*
Communist Party Preferences in

Kerala and Andhra
Rest of India
Preferences for Socialist

Parties in All-India
Class
Middle
Lower Middle
Working
7%
19
74
27%
30
43
23%
36
41
Education
Illiterate
Under-matric.
Matric. plus
52%o
39
9
43%
37
20
31%
43
26
(113)
(68)
(88)
* These figures have been computed from tables presented in the Indian Institute of Public Opinion,
Monthly Public Opinion Surveys, Vol. 2, No. 4, 5, 6, 7 (Combined Issue), New Delhi, January-April,
1957, pp. 9-14. This was a pre-election poll, not a report of the actual voting results. The total sample
consisted of 2,868 persons. The Socialist Party and the Praja-Socialist Party figures are combined here,
since they share essentially the same moderate program. The support given to them in Andhra and Kerala
was too small to be presented separately.
small moderate Socialist Parties, comes disproportionately from relatively well-to-do
and better educated strata. The picture
shifts sharply in Kerala and Andhra, where
the Communistsare strong. The middle class
provides only seven per cent of Communist
support there, with the working class supplying 74 per cent, showing the difference in
the constituency of an extremist party when
it becomes an effective political force.Y8
Educational differences among party supporters show a similar pattern.
HISTORICAL PATTERNS AND
DEMOCRATIC ACTION
Complex historical factors explain why, in

the face of profoundly anti-democratictendencies in lower class groups, their political
organizations and movements in the more
industrializeddemocraticcountries have supported both economicand political liberalism.
Economic liberalism or leftism flows from
their situation, producing demands for redistribution of the wealth, but their situation
neither produces nor calls for non-economic
liberalism, support of ethnic tolerance, and
democratic norms.69Of course, workers' or68 The hypothesis presented here does not attempt
to explain the growth of small parties. Adaptations
to major crises, particularly depressions and wars,
are probably the key factors initially increasing the
support for a small "complex" party. For an analysis
of the change in electoral support of a Socialist party
as it moved up to a major party status, see S. M.
Lipset, Agrarian Socialism, Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1950, esp. pp. 159-178.
69 There have been many exceptions to the generalization that democratic leftist parties based on
the lower strata support non-economic liberalism.
The Australian Labor party has been the foremost
supporter of a "white Australia." Similarly, in the
United States until the advent of the ideological
New Deal, the lower-class based Democratic party
has usually been the more anti-Negro of the two
parties. For documentation of this point see "Classes
and Parties in American Politics," in Lipset, Political Man, op. cit., Chapter 9. The American labor
movement has opposed non-white immigration, and
much of it maintains barriers against Negro members. Even the Marxist Socialist movement of western Europe was not immune to anti-Semitism. Thus,
before World War I there were several anti-Semitic
incidents in which Socialists were involved, some
avowedly anti-Semitic leaders connected with different socialist parties, and strong resistance shown to
committing the socialist organization to oppose antiSemitism. See E. Silberner, "The Anti-Semitic Tradition in Modern Socialism," Scripta Hierosolymi-
499
ganizations, trade unions, and political

parties played a major role in extending
political democracy in the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. These struggles
for political freedom by the workers, like
those of the middle class before them, took
place in the context of a fight for economic
rights.70 Freedom of organization and of
speech, as well as universal suffrage, were
necessary means in the battle for a better
standard of living, social security, shorter
hours, and the like. The upper classes resisted
the extension of political freedom as part of
their defense of economicand social privilege.
Few groups in history have ever voluntarily espoused civil liberties and freedom
for those who advocate measures they consider despicable or dangerous.Religious freedom emerged in the western world because
the contending powers found themselves
unable to destroy the other group without
tana, 3 (1956), pp. 378-396. In an article on
the recent British "race riots," Michael Rumney
notes the working-class base of anti-Negro sentiment and goes so far as to predict that "the Labor
party will become the enemy of the Negro as time
goes on." He reports that "while the Conservative
party has been able to stand behind the police and
take any means it feels necessary to preserve the
peace, the Labor party has been strangely silent.
If it speaks it will either antagonize the men who
riot against West Indians, or forfeit its claim to
being the party of equal rights." "Left Mythology
and British Race Riots," The New Leader (September 22, 1958), pp. 10-11.
70 Similarities
exist between the behavior of
middle-class groups at the time when they were
lowly ranked in a predominantly aristocratic and
feudal society and working-class groups in newly
industrialized societies. The affinities of both for
religious and economic "radicalism," in the same
sense, are striking. Calvin's doctrine of predestination, as Tawney points out, performed the same
function for the eighteenth century bourgeoisie as
did Marx's theory of the inevitability of socialism
for the proletariat in the nineteenth. Both "set
their virtue at their best in sharp antithesis with
the vices of the established order at its worst, taught
them to feel that they were a chosen people, made
them conscious of their great destiny . . . and resolute to realize it." The Communist Party, as did
the Puritans, insists on "personal responsibility,
discipline and asceticism," and although the historical contents differ, they may have the same
sociological roots: in isolated, status-deprived occupational groups. See R. H. Tawney, Religion and
the Rise of Capitalism, New York: Penguin Books,
1947, pp. 9, 99. For a similar point, see Donald G.
MacRae, "The Bolshevik Ideology," The Cambridge
Journal, 3 (December, 1950), pp. 164-177.
500
destroying the entire society, and because

the very struggle led many men to lose faith
and interest in religion, and consequently
lose the desire to suppress dissent. Similarly,
universal suffrage and freedom of organization and opposition developed in many countries either as concessions to the established
strength of the lower classes or as means of
controlling the lower classes, a tactic advocated and used by such sophisticated conservatives as Disraeli and Bismarck.
Once in existence and although originating
in a conflict of interests, however, democratic
norms, like others, become part of an institutional system. Thus, the western labor and
socialist movement has incorporated these
values into its general ideology. But the fact
that the ideology of the movement is democratic does not mean that its supporters
actually understand its implications. The
evidence seems to indicate that understanding of and adherence to these norms are
highest among leaders and lowest among
followers. The general opinions or attitudinal
predispositions of the rank and file are relatively unimportant in predicting behavior as
long as the organizations to which they are
loyal continue to act democratically.In spite
of the workers'greater authoritarianpropensity, their organizationswhich are anti-Communist still function as better defenders and
carriers of democratic values than parties
based on the middle class. In Germany, the
United States, Great Britain, and Japan,
individuals who support the democratic left
party are more likely to support civil liberties and democratic values than people
within each occupational stratum who back
the conservative parties. That is, workers
who back the democraticleft are more likely
to have tolerant or non-authoritarian attitudes than workers who support the conservative parties. Similarly, middle-class
Social-Democrats are more prone to support
civil liberties than middle-class conservatives. It is probable that organized socialdemocracy not only supports civil liberties
but influences its supporters in the same
direction.71
71 A striking case in point occurred in Australia
in 1950. During a period of much agitation about
the dangers of the Communist party, a Gallup Poll
survey reported that 80 per cent of the electorate
favored outlawing the Communists. Shortly after
Conservatism is especially vulnerable in a

political democracysince there are more poor
people than well-to-do and promises to redistribute wealth and to create a better life
for the lower classes are difficult to rebut.
Consequently, conservatives have traditionally feared a thorough-goingpolitical democracy and have endeavored in most countries
-by restricting the franchise, or by manipulating the legislature through second chambers or overrepresentationof rural districts
and small towns (traditional conservative
strongholds)-to prevent a popular majority
from controlling the government. The ideology of conservatism has often been based
on elitist values which reject the idea that
there is wisdom in the voice of the electorate.
In addition, militarismand nationalism,often
defended by conservatives,probably have an
attraction for individuals with authoritarian
predispositions.72
It would be a mistake to conclude from
the data presented in this paper that the
authoritarian predispositions of the lowerclasses necessarily constitute a threat to a
democratic social system; nor should similar
conclusions be drawn about the anti-democratic aspects of conservatism. Whether or
not a given class supports restrictions on
freedom depends on a wide constellation of
this survey, the conservative government submitted
a proposal to outlaw the party to referendum. During the referendum electoral campaign, the Labor
party and the trade-unions came out vigorously
against the proposal. Considerable shifting took
place thereafter, to the point that the measure to
outlaw the Communists was actually defeated by
a small majority, and Catholic workers who had
overwhelmingly favored the measure when first
questioned by the Gallup Poll eventually followed
the advice of their party and unions and voted
against it. See Leicester Webb, Communism and
Democracy in Australia, A Survey of the 1951
Referendum, New York: Praeger, 1955.
72 A study of the 1952 elections in the United
States reveals that at the grammar school, high
school, and college levels individuals who scored
high on an "authoritarian personality" scale were
much more likely to vote for Eisenhower than for
Stevenson. Robert Lane, "Political Personality and
Electoral Choice," American Political Science Review, 49 (March, 1955), pp. 173-190. In Britain,
a study of working-class anti-Semitism reports that
the small number of Conservatives in the sample
were much more anti-Semitic than the Liberals
and the Laborites. James H. Robb, Working-class
Anti-Semite, London: Tavistock Publications, 1954,
pp. 93-94.
factors of which those discussed here are
only a part.
The instability of the democratic process
in general and the strength of the Communists in particular are closely related to
national levels of economic development, including degrees of educational attainment.73
The Communistsrepresenta mass movement
in the poorer countries of Europe and elsewhere, but are weak where economic development and educational attainment are high.74
The lower classes of the less developed
countries are poorer, more insecure, less educated, and possess fewer status symbols than
those of the more well-to-do nations. In the
more developed stable democracies of western Europe, North America, and Australasia
the lower classes are "in the society" as well
as "of it": their cultural isolation is much less
than the isolation of the poorer groups in
other countries, who are cut off from partici73See S. M. Lipset, "Some Social Requisites of
Democracy," American Political Science Review, 53
(March, 1959), pp. 69-105; and Political Man,
op. cit.
74 "It is in the advanced industrial countries,
principally the United States, Britain, and Northwestern Europe, where national income has been
rising, where mass expectations of an equitable share
in that increase are relatively fulfilled, and where
social mobility affects ever greater numbers, that
extremist politics have least hold." Daniel Bell, "The
Theory of Mass Society," Commentary, 22 (July,
1956), p. 80.
501
pation by abysmally low incomes and very

limited, if any, schooling. Thus the incorporation of the workersinto the body politic in
the industrialized western world has greatly
reduced their authoritarian predispositions,
although in the United States, for example,
McCarthy demonstrated that an irresponsible demagogue who combines a nationalist
and anti-elitist appeal can still secure considerable support from the less educated.
While the evidence as to the effects of
rising standards of living and education permits us to maintain hopeful expectations
concerningworking-classpolitical values and
behavior in those countries in which extremism is weak, the available data suggest
pessimistic conclusions with regard to the
less economically developed, unstable democracies. Where an extremist party has secured the support of the lower classes, often
by stressing equality and economic security
at the expense of liberty, it is problematic
whether this support can be taken away from
it through use of democratic methods. The
Communists, in particular, combine the two
types of politics which have a basic appeal
to these classes, economic radicalism and a
chiliastic view of the world. Whether democratic working-classparties able to demonstrate convincingly their ability to defend
economic and class interests can be built up
in the less stable democracies is a moot
question.

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Democracy and Working-Class Authoritarianism

Author(s): Seymour Martin Lipset

DEMOCRACY AND WORKING-CLASS AUTHORITARIANISM

GRADUAL realizationthat authoritarian have been given recently by the support of

2 Clancy Sigal, in the New Statesman,October4,

freedom is not a simple variant of the

most established authoritarian predispositions. Thus a Catholic worker who is

The "authoritarianism"of any social stratum or class, of course, is highly relative, as

Wells, "Ideology and Leadershipin Puerto Rican

York: CriterionBooks, 1955, pp. 141-166.

TABLE 1. RESPONSES OF DIFFERENT GERMAN OCCUPATIONALGROUPS TO PREFERREDPARTY SYSTEM IN

The distinction between economic and

Abundant data from almost every country

Somewhat similar findings were obtained

systematic of these, based on a national

Professional and Semi-Professional

Many observers have called attention to

Troeltsch has characterized the psychological appeal of sectarian religion in a way

Direct linkages between the social roots of

AND POLITICAL TOLERANCE IN THE

Percentage in the Two "Most Tolerant" Categories

High White Collar

Low White Collar

A number of elements in the typical social

Per Cent Favoring the

*Source: see Table 1.

system presented in Tables 3 and 4 reveal

and xenophobic than those who vote and

the quality of the educational experience is

grade education were more authoritarian than those

much less contact with foreign countries and peoples,

is much more limited."

If elements which contribute to a lack of

immediate alleviation through the venting of

working class, tend to increase rather than

Working-class life as a whole, and not

48 Hoggart, op. cit., p. 88. This kind of life, as

The British Journal of Sociology, 9 (June, 1958),

pp. 160 ff.

cial mobility, also emphasizes the ways in

and the inability to perceive the complex

Almond,op. cit., p. 244.

recruits,and to the difficultiesof assimilation

Partiespolitiqueset classessocialesen France,Paris:

58 Almond, op. cit., p. 190. This statement is

of interest in organizations which have a

Thus far this paper has been concerned

60 Most of these characteristics have been cited

ducive both to withdrawal, or even apathy,

In Italy, France, and Finland, where the

SUPPORT OF THE SocIAL-DEMocRATIC

thus can be considered an independent replication.

TABLE 6. COMMUNIST AND SOCIALISTPREFERENCESIN INDIA, BY CLASS AND EDUCATION*

Communist Party Preferences in

Preferences for Socialist

Complex historical factors explain why, in

ganizations, trade unions, and political

destroying the entire society, and because