Part 2 of John Dean's study on the Authoritarians.

[alfredo]

This is the second part of a three part series distilling what Dean wrote in his fine book "Conservatives Without Conscience."

here's part 1: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070905.html Check back at this page: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/ for his last installment.

Part 2

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070921.html

Today, the Grand Old Republican Party is controlled by authoritarian conservatives. (As I mentioned in my prior column, the first in this three-part series, to my knowledge no person in the GOP has ever denied that fact - and they are well-aware of my book.) More specifically, as I broadly outlined in my last column, the research of social scientists such as Bob Altemeyer has revealed the personality traits of both those authoritarians who are followers, and those who are their leaders.

snip

These, of course, are followers. Altemeyer labeled these people "right-wing authoritarians" not because he was looking to target political conservatives, but rather because he was drawing broadly on the historical terms that identify those who openly submit to established authorities, and whether those authorities are political, economic or religious, those who submit to them are traditionally described as being on the right wing. As Altemeyer developed and refined his testing, however, it became apparent that those who tested as highly submissive to economic or religious authorities also proved to be hard-right political conservatives.

[Demeter]

1. Nature, or Nurture? Different, or Signs of Illness?

I hope John Dean has something about these questions in part 3.

[alfredo]

2. It is nature reinforced by nurture. We know their brains are different.

please keep kicked

[tom_paine]

3. Dean isw no psychologist. Such experiments could and should be conducted, though.

Something which tries to form a hypothesis to answer your question.

If you wish, click on my signature link, and post this interesting question to Dr. Altemeyer himself.

Maybe he knows if such research should be done.

But I wouldn't expect Dean's Part 3 to shed any light nor even address whatever root causes there may be.

[alfredo]

4. Dean never said he was. He used the best info he could find to make

his argument. He also had them review what he wrote to make sure he reached the correct conclusions.

Dean is a lawyer, he knows how to gather information and present a compelling argument based on that info.

I downloaded the PDF earlier today.